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.

Comments

Way too many buzzwords to sound credible

[ffkom]

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.

Re:Way too many buzzwords to sound credible

[Required Snark]

It's has two dimensions for electrons confined in the material. An electron cannot move in the third dimension because it is restricted to motion in a plane. Similarly an electron or other particle (or wave) can be restricted to one dimension in a wire structure, because it only has one degree of freedom, i.e. motion along a line.

Your objection assumes that our experience of the world, in this case three dimensions, applies at all scale and in all conditions. Modern physics refutes this assumption.

Re:Electrons??

[Anonymous Coward]

Electrons cannot be divided into more fundamental particles. They're it, baby.

Re:Electrons??

[HumanWiki]

I came across this from 4yrs ago: http://www.popsci.com/science/...

Re:Electrons??

[Baloroth]

Since the past 100 years or so. They're point particles, which means they have no internal structure, and aren't composed of any other particles. They can be destroyed or created, but that's not division.

You can also split an electron's wavefunction into multiple pieces, so that it occupies certain distinct regions with various probability amplitude (and these split wavefunctions can actually have physical effects: while I'm not enough of an expert on condensed matter to say for sure, a quick skim of the paper indicates that something like that is what is happening here), that's a bit different from dividing the electron.