Peaceful matter-antimatter pairs are the real deal

• Autores: Lisa Grossman
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2911, 2013, pág. 16
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Matter and antimatter have been caught coexisting again. A second attempt to detect long-sought Majorana fermions, particles that can act as their own antiparticle, has come up positive, suggesting the strange particles are real. Fermions such as electrons and quarks, the particle building blocks of matter, have antiparticles that are identical except for their charge. When the two meet, they annihilate in a puff of energy. Now Dale Van Harlingen and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have further evidence that this is the correct explanation. They created a similar set-up but this time ramped the voltage up and down and shortened the wire. The plan was to cause the quantum waves associated with each fermion to overlap and constructively interfere, creating two extra peaks in current. Sure enough, the team saw two more blips.