Here’s what you’ll learn by reading this story:
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In three-dimensional particle physics, elementary particles are further divided into fermions and bosons. But in the lower dimensions, things are not so clear.
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These dimensions host a “third state” of quasiparticles known as anions, which have properties intermediate between the quantum description of fermions and bosons.
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In 2020, scientists discovered the experimental existence of nothing in two-dimensional space, and in two new studies, scientists described its existence. Tunable in any one-dimensional space (and describe their properties).
When you drill down into the very fabric of reality—where elementary particles make up you and me and everything around us in three-dimensional space—things fall neatly into two categories: fermions and bosons. These two categories of particles are defined primarily by their nuclear spin (in quantum mechanical terms), bosons (photons, gluons, Higgs bosons, W bosons, and Z bosons) with integer spin values, and fermions (protons, neutrons, electrons, with half spin values). While two bosons can occupy the same quantum state (which is why photons can pass through each other), two fermions can’t—a good thing, because if they could, you’d be falling off the floor right now.
But as is true with most things in science, things don’t Always Line up so well. For example, for half a century, scientists have known about anything that exists in two-dimensional space. This quasiparticle is essentially anything between a boson and a fermion, which explains why the American physicist Frank Wilczek named them “ani-ons” or simply anything. However, it was not until 2020 that these strange particles were observed experimentally in one-atom thick (two-dimensional) semiconductors. “We had bosons and fermions, and now we’ve got this third state,” Wilczek said at the time. “It’s absolutely a milestone.”
Now, scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and the University of Oklahoma report the existence of a one-dimensional system in which anything can happen. In two separate papers – both published in journals Physical Review A-The researchers explain Adjustable recipe for anyones and Their theoretical propertiesExploring new corners of this “third state” of elementary particles.
“Every particle in our universe seems to fit strictly into two categories: bosonic or fermionic. Why aren’t there others?” Thomas Bush, co-author of both studies at OIST, said in a press release. “With these works, we have now opened the door to improving our understanding of the fundamental properties of the quantum world and it is very exciting to see where theoretical and experimental physics will take us from here.”
Because any exist only in the lower dimensions, to put it a lot Simply put, in those dimensions there are fewer options for particles to move around. Raul Hidalgo-Sacoton (a PhD student at OIST) describes the “exchange factor” that exists in 3D space – when two electrons change places, they must obey a simple rule that governs the mathematical statistics of the phenomenon: its square must be equal to 1, which means that all particles are (1) or particles (1).
In two dimensions, however, it is not so simple: “To satisfy the law of indivisibility, we need exchange factors in a continuous range for exchange, depending on the exact twists and turns of the paths,” Hidalgo-Sacoto said in a press statement. And anything between -1 and 1 is considered to be within that range.
In this study, Bush, Hidalgo-Sacoto, and their colleague Doerte Blum (from the University of Oklahoma) discovered that this boson-fermion binary breaks down in one dimension, and they also discovered a way to specifically tune the exchange factor. Because of their limited movement in one dimension, particles must pass through each other, and this exchange factor differs from higher dimensions. This is probably linked to the strength of short-range interactions between particles.
“Not only have we identified the possibility of the existence of one-dimensional anions, but we have also seen how their exchange statistics can be mapped,” Bush said in a press release. “We are excited to see what future discoveries are made in this area, and what it can tell us about the fundamental physics of our universe.”
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