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All fundamental particles in the universe fall into one of two groups called: fermions and bosons. However, a new study has discovered that there may be other particles that were previously thought to be “impossible”.
A group of fundamental particles – long theorized but considered physically impossible – may, after all, exist.
As paraparticles are not a new idea. However, physicists have always rejected them as having no relevance to physical reality.
The concept has its origin in a division between the known fundamental particles, which are always classified as belonging to one of two groups: one fermion or a boson.
As explained by , the difference lies in what happens when two particles from the same group exchange places – the exchange of bosons does not change their quantum wave function, which is a complete mathematical description of their properties. However, the exchange of two fermions, such as electrons, makes their wave function negative.
This seemingly simple difference has profound physical consequences, meaning that an infinite number of bosons can occupy the same space – the principle by which lasers work, where many photons can accumulate and create extremely high energy densities.
In contrast, fermions must always remain separated in space, which keeps neutron stars stable.
In the 1950s, British physicist Herbert Green presented a more complicated model of particle exchange, called parastatisticsin which the quantum wave function can be changed in other ways besides becoming negative.
Green showed that this fact implied the possibility of there being many new classes of particles, which he called parabosões e paraphermions.
These would allow the existence of only a certain number of particles in the same state, rather than just one or infinitely many.
But physicists who examined the idea more closely discovered that these paraparticles would not function in any detectable way different from fermions or bosons, making the theory seemingly irrelevant. They thought… badly.
A “private” turn of events
Now, a study this Wednesday in Naturecarried out by researchers Zhiyuan Wang e Kaden Hazzardfrom Rice University in Texas, discovered that paraparticles may, after all, be physically detectable.
“Our work proves, for the first time, that there actually exists something beyond fermions and bosons,” praised Wang, quoted by New Scientist.
As the same magazine details, the duo began by presenting a new mathematical description of paraparticles, which included stricter rules than previous definitions, such as the guarantee that information could not travel faster than light. Then he showed that there were specific quantum systems in which these paraparticles should emerge as vibrations and be physically detectable.
Observing these particles would require advances in our ability to control quantum states, which are probably still many years away.
One limitation of the new work is that, so far, the pair have only demonstrated that paraparticles can exist in one or two dimensions, although nothing excludes their existence in three.
Another problem is that the paraparticles that Wang and Hazzard propose are technically quasiparticles which, as the name suggests, are not fundamental particles like electrons or photons, but rather collective vibrations that act as if they were a particle.
Wang and Hazzard also speculate that paraparticles may exist as fundamental particles because mathematics does not exclude this possibility, but they do not have concrete evidence that shows where or how they can appear.
But researchers hope that, one day, paraparticles may even be detected and that this discovery will have practical applications.
