An ‘angel particle’ which is both matter and anti-matter has been discovered 80 years after its existence was first proposed by physicists.
Researchers revealed that they have found the first evidence of the elusive particles in what is being described as a ‘landmark’ moment in quantum physics.
The discovery could help scientists to bring a quantum computing revolution, which would allow us to make machines many times more powerful than those made using existing technology.
Scientists have theorised that when the Big Bang first created the universe, equal amounts of matter and anti-matter were produced.
Anti-matter is made from particles which are the ‘anti-particles’ of those from normal matter.
Researchers also predicted that if the two kinds of matter would ever meet, they would destroy each other, leaving only a burst of energy behind.
But in 1937, an Italian physicist called Ettore Majorana suggested that another class of particles could exist – which was their own anti-particles.
He called these particles ‘fermions’.
Now researchers have found the first evidence that these particles could exist.
The scientists named their discovery the ‘Angel Particle’ after the novel Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, which includes the making of a bomb from the combination of matter and anti-matter.
Professor Shoucheng Zhang, a Standford University physicist, said: ‘Our team predicted exactly where to find the Majorana fermion and what to look for as its ‘smoking gun’ experimental signature.
‘This discovery concludes one of the most intensive searches in fundamental physics, which spanned exactly 80 years.’
To find proof that fermions exist, the scientists first needed to find ‘quasi-particles’.
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