In the middle of 2023, scientific breakthroughs theorized in years past, begin to resurface and in a verifiable way, such as the demon particle. This is a huge challenge for science; the particle inside a superconductor, also known as the “Pine’s demon,” could help to demystify the “holy grail” of physics, regarding superconductors.
Now with this discovery, the formation of plasmons at any energy can be confirmed, so they may exist at all temperatures. This has led to speculation that they have important effects on the behavior of multiband metals.
An Accidental Discovery
Seventy years after it was first predicted, condensed matter physicists at the University of Illinois discovered an important quantum phenomenon: the demon particle, which was speculated to play an important role in the behavior of several metals and alloys and a wide range of phenomena.
This discovery has the potential to have a significant impact on materials physics. For example, understanding this particle could shed light on room-temperature superconductors, a long-sought achievement and a major step in physics that would enable the transmission of electricity with minimal losses.
“This finding was completely accidental,” commented physicist Peter Abbamonte during a presentation on the discovery, according to Science Alert. “In 2018, we stumbled upon this excitation, and it took time to discover its nature, which turned out to be this particle,” he added.
According to the scientists, initially, the team was investigating strontium ruthenate to understand why it shared properties similar to those of high-temperature superconductors (around -130 degrees Celsius) without actually becoming one. To study the electronic properties of the metal, they created high-quality samples and employed a technique that harnesses the energy of electrons fired at the metal to directly observe its characteristics, including the plasmons that form, which led them to find the demon particle.
In 1956, theoretical physicist David Pines predicted that electrons in a solid could form a composite particle called a demon. It's eluded detection since its prediction….until now.https://t.co/bHqCVWDBRy
— MaterialsResearchLab (@MRLatIllinois) August 9, 2023
What Is the Demon Particle?
The proposal generated in 1956 by David Pines, is a theory that talks about the discovery of something that is not exactly a particle, but a plasmon. This quasiparticle is the joint movement of electrons in a metal. According to Pines, the plasmon he found during his research has a different electron motion than the one known.
After this discovery, he proposes that, if there is a mixture of this plasmon with other energies, it could exist at room temperature. After 67 years, the theory had not been proven until now, because the quasiparticle found in strontium metal ruthenate is massless, neutral, and does not interact with light, but with sound. According to the authors of the paper announcing that Pines was correct, the discovery of the demon particle came about by accident.
The Importance of Superconductors for the Demon Particle
One of the biggest challenges facing humanity is energy efficiency. The growing demand for energy and the effects of climate change have led the scientific and technological community to search for innovative solutions that will revolutionize the way we produce and use electricity. Among these solutions, one is particularly promising: superconductivity.
When Heike Onnes discovered this phenomenon on April 8, 1911, she did so using a sample of mercury at about 4 k temperature. Since then, materials have been developed that exhibit “high-temperature” superconductivity. Despite this name, these are materials that need to be cooled to 100 k (approximately -170 °C) to exhibit superconductivity. Other materials have shown this property at much higher temperatures, above 250 K, but required pressures millions of times the atmospheric pressure at sea level.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera
