
Massless particle with promise for next-generation electronics discovered - esalman
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S43/64/59M11/index.xml
======
yk
Someone should perhaps point out, that the article talks about quasiparticles.
Quasiparticles are a bit similar to the particle aspect of a quantum
mechanical wave. So for example deformations of the lattice of an crystal are
sound waves, but it is also possible to look at the deformations as a field
and then quantize the field. Excitations of this field look suspiciously
similar to a particle, as in they are produced by the same mathematical
formalism. The particles associated with excitations of the electro-magnetic
field are photons, and the particles associated with excitations of this
deformation field are called phonons. The difference is, that the electro
magnetic field is a fundamental aspect of nature, while the deformation field
only describes deformations of a given crystal and therefore photons are
fundamental particles, while phonons are quasi particles.

Something similar happens in this discovery, there is some aspect of the
dynamic in the crystal that can be described as a Weyl spinor. But that does
not mean, that a new fundamental particle is discovered, it just means that a
new dynamic in a crystal is observed. ( Which is of course cool in its own
right, and probably technologically more relevant than a new fundamental
particle.)

~~~
fsloth
Thanks, great summary. To translate to non-physicists: It quacks like a
particle, it walks like a particle but it's not really a particle. Like
counting stones or apples, the both can be understood in terms of similar
arithmetic. Same here, only more maths. And, those properties that were
observed, may come in handy.

~~~
acjohnson55
But what is a "real" particle anyway?

~~~
dvdkhlng
"real" particles are those that can leave the holodeck ([1]) "quasi-particles"
vanish at the doorstep :)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodeck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodeck)

PS: replace "holodeck" with "tantalum arsenide crystal" to yield a less off-
topic comment.

~~~
daveloyall
Thank you for this explanation.

But hey, speaking of TNG... Can't you just stick on of those fancy crystals in
your computer?

Wait, computers made out of crystals? Did that just happen? :)

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
Computers are already made out of fancy crystals. But these new crystals would
be even fancier than the old ones.

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privong
There was some other discussion on HN about this discovery four days ago[0],
based on the press release from the competing MIT team. Both papers were
published in the same issue of Science[1,2] (preprints[3,4]).

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9899369](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9899369)

[1]
[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/07/15/science.a...](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/07/15/science.aaa9273.abstract?sid=31d8c875-11ca-4da8-aeeb-32719f4e4395)

[2]
[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/07/15/science.a...](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/07/15/science.aaa9297.abstract?sid=31d8c875-11ca-4da8-aeeb-32719f4e4395)

[3] [http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.03438](http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.03438)

[4] [http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.02630v1](http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.02630v1)
(h/t @selimthegrim)

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darkmighty
Can anyone ascertain how much those claims are press release hype?

~~~
dvdkhlng
I only skimmed the article, but claiming discovery of a "new particle" seems
extremly bogus. According to wikipedia [1], the cited paper merely
demonstrates the finding of a quasi-particle [3] that behaves like a Weyl
Fermion.

Claiming to have found a new particle in that case is like claiming that
magnetic monopoles actually exist based on these findings [2].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinor#Terminology_in_physics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinor#Terminology_in_physics)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_ice#cite_note-
MonopoleRev...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_ice#cite_note-
MonopoleReview-3)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasiparticle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasiparticle)

------
nickpsecurity
Neat stuff. Hopefully we get some use out of them. Meanwhile, optical
computing field is coming along nicely from the time when I read press
releases about it similar to this one. Maybe we'll something great (eg better
CPU's) out of it if not this. :)

