this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2024
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Science

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Particle that only has mass when moving in one direction observed for first time (www.psu.edu)
submitted 7 months ago by Joker@sh.itjust.works to c/science@mander.xyz
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[–] OrganicMustard@lemmy.world 48 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The important thing here is that this is about a quasi particle, something that behaves sort of like a particle but is not (like a hole in the electron distribution), in a 2D crystal lattice. This only happens because the lattice is not isotropic, you see a different pattern depending in the direction you look, so having properties change with direction is not totally unexpected. We already have materials with anisotropic thermal conductivity for example.

This won't happen in vacuum as vacuum is isotropic.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 7 months ago

this is such an important thing to note that i feel the headline is just outright a lie

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 35 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Finally some quality content.

I'm not sure what it would be used for but this is a brand new compound into humanities toolbox that advances physics at the same time. Unexplained phenomena that is also confirming a particle theorised 16y ago. Give Nobel please.

[–] Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is how we get to warp drive... Make it so number 1.

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

We might be able to make a warp drive within the crystal structure. 🫠

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

An uneducated hypothesis: have a bunch if these particles move back and forth in unison => directional force using only energy => space travel with infinite fuel

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Only caveat is that we have to change everyone into fermions temporarily lol

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 13 points 7 months ago

Just a minor scientific hurdle, I'm sure they'll figure it out in the upcoming weeks.

[–] limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 7 months ago

I like quality content, even if I can’t understand sometimes

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Explain yourself immediately.

[–] DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 7 months ago

They have played us for absolute fools.

[–] halykthered@lemmy.ml 23 points 7 months ago (3 children)
  1. Find shiny rock.
  2. Make rock cold.
  3. Place cold rock in invisible field that can levitate water droplets
  4. Shine energy on cold rock we can't even see

How is this not summoning mythical creatures or opening portals to other dimensions?

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

All I'm saying is things started getting weird after the turned the LHC on

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Tales from the Loop...

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 17 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Is it down? I bet it's down.

[–] Restaldt@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago

Ooh ah ah ah ah

[–] klemptor@startrek.website 3 points 7 months ago

You gotta get up to get down

[–] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

if particles only have mass during certain conditions... could particles be used to compute?

We're talking... 3034 kinda tech here, but, hear me out.

[–] Zementid@feddit.nl 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Gravity Vents/ Inertial Damening come to mind. Having momentum moving in one direction but not when reversing would mean infinite acceleration.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The computer you're using is made out of particles. You have to be more specific.

Hell, if it's a newer device, it's a series of switches operating on nearly-single electrons.

[–] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

....Holy shit

Is it, dangerous to hold this sort of power?

Only if you use generative Ai

[–] Restaldt@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

Why does this feel like forbidden knowledge

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 2 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Hmm... is this what could change space-flight? Imagine having a material that is nigh weighless when moving away from gravity but gains mass again when moving towards it. It would make it much more feasible to transport heavier stuff into space.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 29 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Misleading headline. Article goes badly wrong in its attempt to ELI5 …..

It’s not “direction”‘that’s affected, but electron transitions to either higher or lower states ….. I think. This article is horribly written if they wanted to communicate anything

Edit: the article does link to the original paper but someone else will need to translate that. It looks more like they were able to produce a formerly theoretical quantum particle (not electron) and show weird behavior. I still don’t know what “direction” means, because it’s relative to how its quantum state changes. I don’t think direction means direction in the macro sense but I don’t know what it does mean

I was misled in the posted article with hints about energy levels that reminded of electron shells. The original article makes it clear these are not electrons but talks about quantum states in a vaguely similar way (at least according to my limited understanding)

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 9 points 7 months ago

I don't think that's what they're saying. They're measuring a property that should scale linearly with Landau levels and the strength of the magnetic field by a known factor. There's one possible factor for massive particles, and another for massless ones. In this experiment they observed a third value for the factor that lies between those two, one which matches the predictions of these semi-Dirac fermions. The particles in question are electrons in a semi-metal, so I think that can mean actual movement in the sense that we usually think of the word

That said this is waaay beyond my level of physics, even with the professor attempting to dumb it down for us

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

For sure directions is related to different planes or lines along the crystal.

[–] kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 6 points 7 months ago

They quote in the article that when moving in certain directions, the fermion's energy is completely derived from motion. So it's essentially taking the m out of E = mc², which is still neat, but not really something you can scale up

[–] protist@mander.xyz 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately we can't just build something out of particles like this. Consider electrons or neutrinos, something similar is what we're dealing with here.

[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 1 points 7 months ago

Unfortunately we can’t just build something out of particles like this.

Yet. We can't do it yet. Now that we know it's possible under the right conditions maybe we can figure it out with a century of effort.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

A spinning ring or torus of these particles would make a great propulsion system! When moving toward the back of the ship, they're reaction mass, moving the ship forward. Then they masslessly move back toward the front of the ship. Basically like a rocket that keeps reusing its own exhaust.