A Majorana fermion is a fermion that is its own anti-particle. The term is sometimes used in opposition to Dirac fermion, which describes particles that differ from their antiparticles.
The concept goes back to Ettore Majorana's 1937 suggestion that neutral spin-1/2 particles can be described by a real wave equation (the Majorana equation), and would therefore be identical to their antiparticle (since the wave function of particle and antiparticle are related by complex conjugation).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorana_fe…
In 1937, after the rise of quantum mechanics, Ettore Majorana, an Italian theoretical physicist, realized that the new physics implied the existence of a novel type of particles, now called Majorana fermions. After a 75-year hunt, researchers have now spotted the first solid evidence of their existence. And their discovery could hold the key to finally creating workable quantum computers.
Prior to Majorana's work, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger came up with an equation that describes how quantum particles behave and interact. Paul Dirac, an English physicist, tweaked that equation to apply it to fermions, such as electrons, moving at near-light speed. That work tied together quantum mechanics and Einstein's special theory of relativity. It also implied the existence of antimatter, where every particle has an antimatter counterpart—such as electrons and positrons—and that the two would annihilate each other if they ever met. Dirac's work suggested that some particles, such as photons, could serve as their own antiparticles. But fermions weren't thought to be among them. It was Majorana's manipulations of Dirac's equations that suggested the possible existence of a new type of fermion that could serve as its own antiparticle.
At the time, Majorana thought a type of neutrino, an electrically neutral particle with a tiny mass, might fit the bill for his proposed particle. And scientists continue to search for evidence that neutrinos are or are not their own antiparticles. But decades after Majorana's proposal, theoretical physicists realized that the coordinated motion of large numbers of electrons in electronic devices might mimic the behavior of Majorana fermions. These collective motions aren't elementary bits of matter the way electrons and neutrinos are. Rather, they are "quasiparticles." But they should behave much as would elementary particles of the same type. It is the signs of these quasiparticles that researchers led by physicist Leo Kouwenhoven and colleagues at Delft University of Technology report online today in Science.
The concept goes back to Ettore Majorana's 1937 suggestion that neutral spin-1/2 particles can be described by a real wave equation (the Majorana equation), and would therefore be identical to their antiparticle (since the wave function of particle and antiparticle are related by complex conjugation).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorana_fe…
In 1937, after the rise of quantum mechanics, Ettore Majorana, an Italian theoretical physicist, realized that the new physics implied the existence of a novel type of particles, now called Majorana fermions. After a 75-year hunt, researchers have now spotted the first solid evidence of their existence. And their discovery could hold the key to finally creating workable quantum computers.
Prior to Majorana's work, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger came up with an equation that describes how quantum particles behave and interact. Paul Dirac, an English physicist, tweaked that equation to apply it to fermions, such as electrons, moving at near-light speed. That work tied together quantum mechanics and Einstein's special theory of relativity. It also implied the existence of antimatter, where every particle has an antimatter counterpart—such as electrons and positrons—and that the two would annihilate each other if they ever met. Dirac's work suggested that some particles, such as photons, could serve as their own antiparticles. But fermions weren't thought to be among them. It was Majorana's manipulations of Dirac's equations that suggested the possible existence of a new type of fermion that could serve as its own antiparticle.
At the time, Majorana thought a type of neutrino, an electrically neutral particle with a tiny mass, might fit the bill for his proposed particle. And scientists continue to search for evidence that neutrinos are or are not their own antiparticles. But decades after Majorana's proposal, theoretical physicists realized that the coordinated motion of large numbers of electrons in electronic devices might mimic the behavior of Majorana fermions. These collective motions aren't elementary bits of matter the way electrons and neutrinos are. Rather, they are "quasiparticles." But they should behave much as would elementary particles of the same type. It is the signs of these quasiparticles that researchers led by physicist Leo Kouwenhoven and colleagues at Delft University of Technology report online today in Science.
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