‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle
1 min read
Summary
Over the past year, two teams of physicists have independently revived a decades-old idea that there could be a third, previously unknown type of particle called a paraparticle.
From a theoretical standpoint, paraparticles could exist, but they would not be able to be definitively confirmed by an observer, as their behaviour would be mutable depending on how they were observed.
While one team, led by physicist Kaden Hazzard of Rice University in Texas, published findings showing that under certain assumptions, paraparticles could exist, the other, led by Markus Müller of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Austria, found assumptions under which they could not exist.
The teams’ work is prompting a reconsideration of what kinds of elementary particles the universe permits.
Depending on how they are defined, paraparticles could create new materials that have properties neither solid, like earth, nor gaseous, like air.
