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2024-11-11

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Scientists Found Dark Electrons: a Secret Quantum State Hidden in Solid Matter (www.popularmechanics.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Researchers have just found evidence of “dark electrons”—electrons you can’t see using spectroscopy—in solid materials.
By analyzing the electrons in palladium diselenide, the team was able to find states that functionally cancel each other out, blocking the electrons in those “dark states” from view.
The scientists believe this behavior is likely to be found across many other substances as well, and could help explain why some superconductors behave in unexpected ways.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

If there are indeed electrons impervious to spectroscopic analysis, and therefore to interaction with em radiation, then our model of physics is totally fucked (or, i suppose, very very incomplete).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

then our model of physics is totally fucked

Aren't we discovering that all the time? We're just making the most of the best models we have, but we know for certain that they're very incomplete.