Electron spin-charge separation: spinons and holons

[docm]

http://www.physorg.com/news168182729.html

Paper link...

Discovery about behavior of building block of nature could lead to computer revolution

July 30th, 2009

A team of physicists from the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham have shown that electrons in narrow wires can divide into two new particles called spinons and a holons.

The electron is a fundamental building block of nature and is indivisible in isolation, yet a new experiment has shown that electrons, if crowded into narrow wires, are seen to split apart.

The electron is responsible for carrying electricity in wires and for making magnets. These two properties of magnetism and electric charge are carried by electrons which seem to have no size or shape and are impossible to break apart.

However, what is true about the properties of a single electron does not seem to be the case when electrons are brought together. Instead the like-charged electrons repel each other and need to modify the way they move to avoid getting too close to each other. In ordinary metals this does not usually make much difference to their behaviour. However, if the electrons are put in a very narrow wire the effects are exacerbated as they find it much harder to move past each other.
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The challenge was to confine electrons tightly in a 'quantum wire' and bring this wire close enough to an ordinary metal so that the electrons in that metal could 'jump' by quantum tunneling into the wire. By observing how the rate of jumping varies with an applied magnetic field the experiment reveals how the electron, on entering the quantum wire, has to fall apart into spinons and holons. The conditions to make this work comprised a comb of wires above a flat metal cloud of electrons. The Cambridge physicists, Yodchay Jompol and Chris Ford, clearly saw the distinct signatures of the two new particles as the Birmingham theorists, Tim Silk and Andy Schofield, had predicted.
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The measurements have to be made at extremely low temperatures, about a tenth of a degree above absolute zero.
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Professor Andy Schofield from the University of Birmingham's School of Physics and Astronomy says, 'The experiment to test this is based on an idea I had together with three colleagues almost 10 years ago. At that time the technology required to implement the experiment was still a long way off.

'What is remarkable about this new experiment is not just the clarity of the observation of the spinon and holon, which confirms some earlier studies, but that the spinon and holon are seen well beyond the region that Duncan Haldane originally conjectured.

'Our ability to control the behaviour of a single electron is responsible for the semiconductor revolution which has led to cheaper computers, iPods and more. Whether we will be able to control these new particles as successfully as we have the single electron remains to be seen. What it does reveal is that bringing electrons together can lead to new properties and even new particles.'

 

[dangineer]

Very interesting! Now the question is whether these particles can actually be separated. It seems that the appearance of these two particles occurs as part of an intermediate step in quantum tunneling, or at least in this type of quantum tunneling. It may be that there really aren't two different particles, that they are just a mathematical artifact that looks like two particles. If this were the case, then one couldn't exist separate from the other.

We'll have to wait and see...

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

http://www.physorg.com/news168182729.html

Paper link...

Discovery about behavior of building block of nature could lead to computer revolution

July 30th, 2009

A team of physicists from the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham have shown that electrons in narrow wires can divide into two new particles called spinons and a holons.

Very interesting. But the article doesn't say who gets the charge and who gets the mass, spinon or the holon?
Also are they sure this is not caused by bose-einstein condensates of near absolute zero temperature?

 

[lanceromega]

http://www.physorg.com/news168182729.html

Paper link...

Discovery about behavior of building block of nature could lead to computer revolution

July 30th, 2009

A team of physicists from the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham have shown that electrons in narrow wires can divide into two new particles called spinons and a holons.

Very interesting. But the article doesn't say who gets the charge and who gets the mass, spinon or the holon?
Also are they sure this is not caused by bose-einstein condensates of near absolute zero temperature?

They not real particles, they are pseudo or quasi particles, just like Phonons or polarons.

Polaron are basic holes due to the arrangement of

Electrons in specific materials can create alot of different types of quasiparticle that can a host of non standard properties such as fractional electrical charge, magnetic charges ( in the case of spin ice), and even spin.

Spinon are basically a result of collection of electron spin state

while i have hear of spinon before due to spintronic, which is attempt to use spin of electrons for switching and computing, i am not sure exactly what Holons are, from what i hear from my son, they have to do with topology and solitons.

 

[dryson]

So now you have a son Lancer Omega? Still continuing to produce lies and attempts to tell everyone that the are wrong?

 

[dangineer]

Still continuing to produce lies and attempts to tell everyone that the are wrong?

Ironic... This seems to be a common practice among some people.

 

[lanceromega]

So now you have a son Lancer Omega? Still continuing to produce lies and attempts to tell everyone that the are wrong?

Duh, Lancer Omega Jr, Why are you Jealous that I have gotten to mate? As for being a lair, it a simple matter to prove what i said about Spinors are incorrect, just require a little bit of effort and small amount of brains. Look it up and then come back to me.. :roll:

 

[MeteorWayne]

MOD HAT ON***

OK, kids, let's cut out the name calling, OK?

MOD HAT OFF***