Welcome anyons! Physicists find best evidence yet for long-sought 2D structures

Amazing stuff!



"Physicists have reported what could be the first incontrovertible evidence for the existence of unusual particle-like objects called anyons, which were first proposed more than 40 years ago. Anyons are the latest addition to a growing family of phenomena called quasiparticles, which are not elementary particles, but are instead collective excitations of many electrons in solid devices. ... Known quasiparticles display a range of exotic behaviours. For example, magnetic monopole quasiparticles have only one magnetic pole — unlike all ordinary magnets, which always have a north and a south. Another example is Majorana quasiparticles, which are their own antiparticles.

Anyons are even more strange. ..."



Welcome anyons! Physicists find best evidence yet for long-sought 2D structures The ‘quasiparticles’ defy the categories of ordinary particles and herald a potential way to build quantum computers.