Free Republic

Researchers Show New Strategy for Detecting Non-Conformist Particles Called Anyons By observing how strange particles called anyons dissipate heat, researchers have shown that they can probe the properties of these particles in systems that could be relevant for topological quantum computing. A team of Brown University researchers has shown a new method of probing the properties of anyons, strange quasiparticles that could be useful in future quantum computers. In research published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the team describes a means of probing anyons by measuring subtle properties of the way in which they conduct heat. Whereas other methods...

New evidence that the quantum world is even stranger than we thought .journalist-note { background-color: #ebd99f; padding: 0.5rem 0.75rem; } <p> .journalist-note p { margin: 0 !important; } Note to journalists: Journalists visiting campus should follow visitor health guidelines. Experimental evidence of quasiparticles called anyons has been found by a team of scientists at Purdue University. Electrical interference in the experiment created a pattern which the researchers called a “pyjama plot”; jumps in the interference pattern were the signature of the presence of anyons. (Purdue University image/James Nakamura) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — New experimental evidence of a collective behavior of...

A small team of researchers at Purdue University has found the strongest evidence yet of the existence of abelian anyons. They have written a paper describing experiments they conducted designed to reveal the existence of the quasiparticles and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server while they await peer review. Anyons are neither bosons nor fermions—in fact, they are not elementary particles at all. Instead, they are classified as quasiparticles that exist in two dimensions. They can be observed, theoretically speaking, when they appear as disturbances in two-dimensional sheets of materials. Theoretical physicists have suggested their existence since the...