Physicists Observe the Majorana Fermion, Which Is Its Own Antiparticle

Charliemopps writes: "For the first time Princeton University scientists have observed a Majorana fermion, a long-predicted but never observed exotic particle that acts as both matter and anti-matter (abstract). "The setup they created starts with an ultrapure crystal of lead, whose atoms naturally line up in alternating rows that leave atomically thin ridges on the crystal's surface. The researchers then deposited pure iron into one of these ridges to create a wire that is just one atom wide and about three atoms thick. ...[Next, they] placed the lead and the embedded iron wire under the scanning-tunneling microscope and cooled the system to -272 degrees Celsius, just a degree above absolute zero. After about two years of painstaking work, they confirmed that superconductivity in the iron wire matched the conditions required for Majorana fermion to be created in their material." The particle is surprisingly stable. Being in both states at once seems to make it interact very weakly with its surrounding material. This could also be a major step towards quantum computing.

Comments

obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Well that's random

[bhcompy]

This could also be a major step towards quantum computing.

Why is that just thrown in there? It seems kind of random.
"Pizza Hut has created a bacon, cheese, AND sausage stuffed crust pizza! This amazing pizza is very delicious. This could also be a major step towards quantum computing."

Re:Well that's random

[Anonymous Coward]

Well it is well known

Pizza+caffeine = code

So by your conjecture

Pizza+caffeine+sausge stuffed crust = quantum code

Re:What is there to say?

[turkeydance]

finally, some nerd news.

Marijuana Fermion

[Tokolosh]

Is it just me?