
Device creates negative mass and a novel way to generate lasers - dnetesn
https://phys.org/news/2018-01-device-negative-massand-lasers.html
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hacker_9
For the confused (like I was):

 _" They did not create an entity that actually possesses "negative mass".
They created configurations of energy states within a material that CAN BE
CHARACTERIZED as a quasiparticle; there is no requirement that we think of it
as a particle-like entity, it's just convenient from certain respects. In turn
that quasiparticle behaves, in at least some respects, as if it were a
particle with "negative mass", although from the sound of things, "negative
inertia" would be a more accurate description of the phenomena they actually
observed." \- DarkLordKelvin _

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stallwart
Given the need for negative mass, I ask the obligatory question as to whether
or not this is even the smallest step towards the Alcubierre drive?

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mrule_
They examine a quasiparticle, so its "mass" is a number describing the
behavior of an emergent excitation of the semiconductor. It's not actually
mass in the sense of an elementary particle.

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danharaj
Re: Alcubierre drive

It needs imaginary mass, not just negative mass.

Edit: I confused the drive's requirements with tachyons.

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thrill
Just take the square root of the negative mass and there you are.

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maxerickson
Original press release: [http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/vamivakas-
microcavity-ne...](http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/vamivakas-microcavity-
negative-mass-generate-lasers-290202/)

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deepnotderp
Wait, they made roton quasiparticles, not actual exotic matter, right?

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api
Any theoretical bearing on the Alcubierre Drive or is this a different domain-
specific concept of negative mass?

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mrule_
The latter
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasiparticle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasiparticle))

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_zachs
lightsabers?

