

Electrons split into two new particles, Holons and Spinons. - chaosmachine
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090730141607.htm

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scythe
The title is somewhat misleading; what's actually happening is that they
finally observed spin-charge separation:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinon>

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chaosmachine
If the title is misleading, so is the article.

 _A team of physicists from the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham have
shown that electrons in narrow wires can divide into two new particles called
spinons and a holons._

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pbhjpbhj
The article is clearly simplifying. Whether one believes the particles
actually exist or whether describing them as particles is simply a convenience
probably relates to whether one believes in an actual multiverse or that the
Copenhagen interpretation is simply a method of understanding.

The spin and charge in question, as the article notes, are gauge invariant.

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Confusion
That's not the issue here. As jacquesm points out in another comment: the
issue here is that these are _quasiparticles_ , which are fundamentally
different from 'real' particles like electrons or photons. Whether or not the
latter 'actually exist' is irrelevant for that distinction.

A quasiparticle is nothing more than the name given to an emergent phenomenon.
Only in a _system_ like a nanowire can spinons and holons emerge. Only in such
a system can you make it seem as if an electron has been split. An isolated
electron still cannot be split in a spin carrying part and a charge carrying
part.

