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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.
  1. Davide Castelvecchi
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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. Their discovery — made using a 2D electronic device — could represent the first steps towards making anyons the basis of future quantum computers.

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Nature 583, 176-177 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01988-0

References

  1. Nakamura, J., Liang, S., Gardner, G. C. & Manfra, M. J. https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.14115 (2020).

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