quasiparticles
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Looking for ghost particles in a frustrated world
In some of the many types of objects and events involving electrons, it is helpful to think that these particles are made up of three smaller particles, called spinons, holons and orbitons. Physicists call these supposedly imaginary particles quasiparticles. By assuming that they exist, we get to simplify our calculations of the electrons’ behaviour in… Continue reading
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A tale of vortices, skyrmions, paths and shapes
There are many types of superconductors. Some of them can be explained by an early theory of superconductivity called Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory. In these materials, vibrations in the atomic lattice force the electrons in the material to overcome their mutual repulsion and team up in pairs, if the material’s temperature is below a particular threshold… Continue reading
anyons, BCS theory, chiral magnets, condensed matter physics, David Thouless, Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, materials science, Nanyang Technical University, orbital angular momentum, p-wave superconductor, path dependency, phase transition, quantum computers, quasiparticles, Rashba-Edelstein effect, s-wave superconductor, skyrmion-vortex coupling, skyrmions, solid state physics, superconductors, supercurrent, topological excitations, topology, Vijay Shenoy -
Physicists produce video of time crystal in action 😱
Have you heard of time crystals? A crystal is any object whose atoms are arranged in a fixed pattern in space, with the pattern repeating itself. So what we typically know to be crystals are really space crystals. We didn’t have to bother with the prefix because space crystals were the only kind of crystals… Continue reading
About Me
I’m a science editor and writer in India, interested in high-energy and condensed-matter physics, research misconduct, pseudoscience, science’s relationship with society, epic fantasy, open source/access/knowledge systems, H.R. Giger’s art, Goundamani’s comedy, Factorio, and most things that require a lot of time to get the hang of.