science

15000 readers

211 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

161

Bizarre particle gains or loses mass depending on direction it travels (newatlas.com)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Summary

Scientists have discovered semi-Dirac fermions, particles that bizarrely gain or lose mass depending on the direction they travel.

Found in the semi-metal material ZrSiS, these quasiparticles are massless when moving at light speed in one direction but gain mass when slowing down in another, due to resistance within the material’s electronic structure.

This behavior, tied to Einstein’s E=mc², was unexpected and may lead to applications similar to graphene.

Researchers are now studying the unexplained quantum interactions behind this phenomenon, published in Physical Review X.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

When I'm driving my car down a street - in one direction it moves without loosing much momentum, but in another direction at a 90 degree angle, my car tends to lose a lot of momentum. Also, it is impossible to move in the z-direction without having a confederate flag on the top of the car and being chased by a sheriff in the deep south.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Ah. The Roscoe Theorem.