Split Electron: Is it an Elementary Particle?

[manojr]

This article says that electron can be split into two:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120418134847.htm

That means electron is not elementary particle anymore?

 

[ZapperZ]

Er.. no.

These "electrons" are quasiparticles, not bare electrons.

In many-body physics, a bunch of exotic things can happen under certain circumstances. The "news" that electrons can fractionalize is not new. Luttinger Liquid theory has predicted (and been proven experimentally) that such quasiparticles can have spin-charge separation in 1D conductors. This new result is showing another "degree of freedom" in such 1D conductors - orbiton.

Zz.

 

[manojr]

Er.. no.
These "electrons" are quasiparticles, not bare electrons.
Zz.

Thank you. Article did not mention quasiparticle and I got confused.

 

[cgk]

It is even possible to split the electron's charge degree of freedom, and to get electronic quasi-particles with fractional charges:
F. Pollmann and P. Fulde 2006 Europhys. Lett. 75 133
http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2006-10092-x

Many body physics has some very confusing things to offer.

 

[Ken G]

Physics in less than three dimensions also introduces some strange behaviors, for example in 2D with strong magnetic fields you get "composite fermions" and the quantum Hall effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Hall_effect), and there are "anyons" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anyon) that are neither bosons nor fermions. Quasiparticles are a whole new ball of wax! It reminds me of the debates we get into about virtual particles-- some say they aren't real, others say they are the only kind of particles that are real. Perhaps the same issues arise with quasiparticles, though I'm not suggesting we address that issue!

 

[manojr]

Good that I posted here and got better understanding of the topic before I saw the same news today with better description of phenomena but misleading news title - http://www.nature.com/news/not-quite-so-elementary-my-dear-electron-1.10471