Curious 'quasiparticles' baffle physicists

[jgraz]

They should really rename "quantum mechanics" to "really weird shit".

SYDNEY: Israeli physicists have discovered bizarre 'quasiparticles' which have one quarter the charge of an electron, and may be useful in quantum computing.

Quasiparticles are formed within a group of electrons and behave as if they are particles. But they only have a fraction of the charge of an electron, according to lead researcher Merav Dolev from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who announced the discovery this week. This is weird because no single particle can have a fraction of electric charge.

Until now, researchers have only been able to form quasiparticles with one-third, one-fifth or one-seventh of the charge on an electron. Quasiparticles with even denominators, such as one-quarter or one-sixth, are expected to behave completely differently to quasiparticles with odd denominators.

<snip>

It's the quasiparticles with even denominators, such as one-quarter, that are more interesting, because scientists expect the order in which they interact changes the outcome. So, if you switch quasiparticle A with quasiparticle B, then switch B with C, it is not the same as switching B with C then A with B.

<snip>

The outcome is that a quasiparticle can 'remember' the path it has taken. Dolev expects this property to be exploited in an exotic type of quantum computer called a 'topological quantum computer'.

More at: http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2038/curious-quasiparticles-have-a-quarter-charge-electron

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. The next generation should gestalt it. You need the field equations but

yeah, it makes sense. You expect ratios to matter, just as in music.

[jgraz]

2. Really? I know physicists who still don't "gestalt" relativity.

They can do the math, but they can't explain how FTL travel violates causality. This stuff is hard for our little monkey brains to grasp.

[Fredda Weinberg]

3. The stiffness of space time? I admit, I didn't get it the

first time I took chemistry or even the 2nd. And yes, I repeated physics 1.5 as well ... but finished with an A for the course. That's the difference between doing the math (my oldest brother has a PhD in physics, so I knew it wasn't that big a deal) and being able to apply the fundamental principles @ our macro scale. It's fun to find the analogs in, for example, human behavior. We do reflect the universe from whence we came.

[On the Road]

4. To Coin a Phrase

"Who ordered THAT?"

I had no idea all these particles were being discovered. The standard model will need another patch.

[Random_Australian]

5. No, since they aren't elementary particles, it won't.

And we use the term "particle" loosely. Well, even more loosely than we usually do.

[On the Road]

6. I Was Just Quoting

Rabi's response to the surprising discovery of the muon, which didn't fit the current models.

So a group of electrons can mimic a single electron with a fractional charge. So that means that charges are not additive? Is that behavior understood?

[Random_Australian]

7. Naw charges 'add', but what usually happens with collective phenomena is that

the individual electrons don't need to change that much to have a very large influence on the behaviour of the "group".

For instance, if two people are talking over the phone (using wires rather than fibreoptics), the electrons are only moving at most a couple of centimeters. (an inch or two for Americans)

However, the signal is carried through at enormous velocity.

In this case, I suspect each electron responds differently, but the overall effect is as if there was one-eighth of the charge there. (And the freaky coupling that happens means that it will do so in discrete, integer-based ways)

However, I'm not that knowledgeable so I could well be wrong.