A team of physicists at Princeton University and the University of Texas at Austin announced on October 2 that they have observed a new particle that has eluded detection for nearly 80 years.
This new particle was first predicted by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937, and is unique because it is the only particle in existence that can adopt both matter and antimatter characteristics simultaneously without annihilating itself in the process.
The conflicting qualities in Majorana fermions work in such a way that the particle rarely interacts with its environment. While this makes it difficult to detect it also means that this new particle could be the next major advance in the pursuit of quantum computing.
Quantum computers will transmit data through quantum bits, called qbits. But qbits will take on a quantum state that allows them to be both a one and zero simultaneously. The problem is that it's difficult for scientists to find a particle that can act as a qbit without readily interacting with nearby material, which would destroy the quantum system. But the Majorana fermion could be the solution.
The material that the team used was an ultra pure crystal of lead. The crystal contained ridges that the scientists filled with iron atoms forming an iron wire within the lead. Under freezing conditions, -457 degrees Fahrenheit, the Majorana fermions begin to form at both ends of the wires, and Yazdani and the team were able to snap a picture of this in action, which is shown above.
Yazdani and the team new exactly where to look for Majorana fermions because many years of theoretical calculations had indicated that if these particles existed, then they would show up at opposite ends of a material.
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This new particle was first predicted by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937, and is unique because it is the only particle in existence that can adopt both matter and antimatter characteristics simultaneously without annihilating itself in the process.
The conflicting qualities in Majorana fermions work in such a way that the particle rarely interacts with its environment. While this makes it difficult to detect it also means that this new particle could be the next major advance in the pursuit of quantum computing.
Quantum computers will transmit data through quantum bits, called qbits. But qbits will take on a quantum state that allows them to be both a one and zero simultaneously. The problem is that it's difficult for scientists to find a particle that can act as a qbit without readily interacting with nearby material, which would destroy the quantum system. But the Majorana fermion could be the solution.
The material that the team used was an ultra pure crystal of lead. The crystal contained ridges that the scientists filled with iron atoms forming an iron wire within the lead. Under freezing conditions, -457 degrees Fahrenheit, the Majorana fermions begin to form at both ends of the wires, and Yazdani and the team were able to snap a picture of this in action, which is shown above.
Yazdani and the team new exactly where to look for Majorana fermions because many years of theoretical calculations had indicated that if these particles existed, then they would show up at opposite ends of a material.
Link