Herbertsmithite
A new theory from MIT could bring a new material for the development of quantum computers.
The universe is a string-net liquid – NewScientist.com: The first hint that a new type of matter may exist came in 1983. “Twenty five years ago we thought we understood everything about how matter changes phase,” says Xiao-Gang Wen, from MIT. “Then along came an experiment that opened up a whole new world”.
In the experiment, electrons moving in the interface between two semiconductors behaved as though they were made up of particles with only a fraction of the electron’s charge. This so-called fractional quantum hall effect (FQHE) suggested that electrons may not be elementary particles after all. However, it soon became clear that electrons under certain conditions can congregate in a way that gives them the illusion of having fractional charge.
This led to the idea that there may be a different way of thinking about matter. What if electrons were not really elementary, but were formed at the ends of long “strings” of other, fundamental particles? They formulated a model in which such strings are free to move “like noodles in a soup” and weave together into huge “string-nets”.
The pair ran simulations to see if their string-nets could give rise to conventional particles and fractionally charged quasi-particles. They did. They also found something even more surprising. As the net of strings vibrated, it produced a wave that behaved according to a very familiar set of laws – Maxwell’s equations, which describe the behaviour of light. “A hundred and fifty years after Maxwell wrote them down, here they emerged by accident,” says Wen.
With the new theory the scientists searched for a material that met the criteria and found a dark green crystal that geologists stumbled across in the mountains of Chile in 1972. “The geologists named it after a mineralogist they really admired, Herbert Smith, labelled it and put it to one side,” says team member Young Lee. “They didn’t realise the potential herbertsmithite would have for physicists years later.”
It’s hoped that Herbertsmithite could become the new Silicon for quantum computers.
This is really cool. There are a lot of references to this in peer reviewed scientific publications, though I didn’t purchase any of the articles. I sincerely hope this pans out. It could be a huge coup for string theory.
A dark green crystal with strange properties? Come on, guys… it’s kryptonite.
long “strings” of other, fundamental particles? They formulated a model in which such strings are free to move “like noodles in a soup” and weave together into huge “string-nets”.
Proof of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!
J/P=?
The original Levin and Wen paper makes the following statement:
“This suggests that photons, electrons and other elementary particles may have a unified origin – string-net condensation in our vacuum”.
This sounds awfully like the “luminiferous aether”, whose existence was disproved by the Michelson–Morley experiment.
What point am I missing?
4 – I’d be willing to bet Michelson-Morley made some assumptions about the necessary nature of the aether it disproved. The item refers to a “new way of thinking about matter” – and a new way of thinking about something is pretty much a key to (pardon the cliché) paradigm shifts.
There has been a lot of discussion on the web, outside the solid, peer-reviewed channels of course, about the possibility of “another kind” of aether, simply because of anomalies like the spacecraft leaving the solar system that are not moving as classical physics and relativity theory predict.
This is fascinating stuff. Wish I had the math to play with some of the implications. Gotta love New Scientist – they publish so much interesting stuff like this.