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New State of Matter Detected in a Two-Dimensional Material (phys.org)
An anonymous reader cites a report on Phys.org: An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons -- thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature -- to break into pieces. The researchers, including physicists from the University of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a two-dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials. Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature. The observation of one of their most intriguing properties -- electron splitting, or fractionalisation -- in real materials is a breakthrough. The resulting Majorana fermions may be used as building blocks of quantum computers, which would be far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.
What's worse is that Majorana fermions are their own anti-particle - so they have no charge - so if the electron split into three of them - where did it's charge go?
This stuff is *hard* to understand!
www.sjbaker.org
There obviously are no "2-dimensional materials", just thin, 3-dimensional layers of material that may have interesting properties. Also, I don't believe for a second that "electrons break apart" in this "mystical" matter - this will most likely turn out to be just about some fancy maths, using fractional charges to describe a model of the "interesting properties". I stopped reading when the article started fantasizing about the use in quantum computers. That's the point where you know they just want to ride some hype in lieu of some substantial results they could present. Sorry for being so pessimistic - I'm a physicist, too.
Dual slot experiments show that electrons have wave-like properties. The electron is indivisible and point-like as far as we know. In quantum mechanics going through two slits at the same time does not mean you're divisible.