Amid the many mysteries of quantum physics, subatomic particles don’t always follow the rules of the physical world.
“Our findings point toward an entirely new class of quantum particles that carry no overall charge but follow unique quantum statistics,” said Jia Li, an associate professor of physics at Brown.
The quantum Hall effect, occurring at extremely low temperatures and high magnetic fields, shows that this sideways voltage increases in clear, separate jumps.
In the fractional quantum Hall effect, these steps become even more peculiar, increasing by only fractional amounts—carrying a fraction of an electron’s charge.
“This unexpected behavior suggests fractional excitons could represent an entirely new class of particles with unique quantum properties,” Zhang said.
In the midst of quantum physics’ many mysteries, subatomic particles occasionally defy the laws of physics. They can simultaneously exist in two locations, transcend physical barriers, and even instantly communicate over great distances. Although it may seem impossible, scientists are investigating a variety of properties that were previously believed to be impossible in the quantum realm.
A novel class of quantum particles known as fractional excitons, which exhibit surprising behavior and have the potential to greatly advance scientists’ knowledge of the quantum realm, has been observed by Brown University physicists this week.
“Our findings point toward an entirely new class of quantum particles that follow unique quantum statistics but carry no overall charge,” mentioned Jia Li, an associate professor of physics at Brown.
The most fascinating aspect of this discovery is that it reveals a variety of new quantum phases of matter, increasing our knowledge of basic physics and possibly creating new avenues for quantum computation. “,”.
In addition to Li, three graduate students—Naiyuan Zhang, Ron Nguyen, and Navketan Batra—as well as Brown physics professor Dima Feldman conducted the study. The paper was co-first written by Zhang, Nguyen, and Batra and was published on Wednesday, January in Nature. 8.
Building on the classical Hall effect, the team’s discovery focuses on a phenomenon called the fractional quantum Hall effect, which produces a sideways voltage when an electric current is applied to a material having a magnetic field.
This sideways voltage increases in distinct, distinct jumps, as demonstrated by the quantum Hall effect, which occurs at very low temperatures and high magnetic fields. These steps become even more strange in the fractional quantum Hall effect, where they only increase by tiny amounts, carrying a fraction of the charge of an electron.
The researchers used two thin layers of graphene, a two-dimensional nanomaterial, and an insulating hexagonal boron nitride crystal to construct a structure in their experiments. They were able to precisely regulate the flow of electrical charges thanks to this configuration. It also enabled them to produce particles called excitons, which are created when an electron and a hole—the absence of an electron—combine.
They then subjected the system to magnetic fields that are millions of times more powerful than those found on Earth. Observing the novel fractional excitons, which displayed an odd set of behaviors, was made easier by this.
There are usually two types of fundamental particles. Since bosons are particles that can have the same quantum state, many of them can coexist unhindered. In contrast, fermions adhere to the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that no two fermions can occupy the same quantum state.
However, none of the fractional excitons seen in the experiment neatly fit into either category. Even though they possessed the fractional charges predicted by the experiment, they behaved almost like a hybrid of bosons and fermions. Because of this, they resembled anyons, a kind of particle that lies in the middle of fermions and bosons. However, the fractional excitons also had special characteristics that distinguished them from anyons.
“This unexpected behavior suggests fractional excitons could represent an entirely new class of particles with unique quantum properties,” Zhang stated. We demonstrate the existence of excitons in the fractional quantum Hall regime, demonstrating that some of these excitons occur when fractionally charged particles pair to form fractional excitons that behave differently from bosons. “,”.
According to the team, the discovery of a new class of particles may eventually contribute to better quantum-level information storage and manipulation, resulting in faster and more dependable quantum computers.
“We are just beginning to explore and manipulate this phenomenon, and we have essentially unlocked a new dimension,” Li stated. We have demonstrated experimentally for the first time that such particles exist, and we are now exploring further what could be revealed by them. “.
Studying the interactions between these fractional excitons and whether their behavior is controllable will be the team’s next course of action.
Feldman said, “This feels like we have our finger right on the knob of quantum mechanics.”. We were unaware of this aspect of quantum mechanics, or at the very least, we didn’t understand it until recently. “.
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