{"id":35722,"date":"2025-01-18T18:39:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T13:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=35722"},"modified":"2025-01-18T18:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T13:09:06","slug":"semi-dirac-fermion-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/18-01-2025\/semi-dirac-fermion-discovery","title":{"rendered":"Discovery of\u00a0 Semi-Dirac Fermion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Science and technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Physicists have theorized the existence of a unique particle called the semi-Dirac fermion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>semi-Dirac fermion<\/strong> is a<strong> quasiparticle <\/strong>that behaves differently depending on its direction of travel\u2014<strong>massless in one direction<\/strong> but <strong>possessing mass when moving the other way.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It was discovered in<strong> zirconium silicon sulfide<\/strong>, a crystalline material.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This phenomenon occurs when the particle derives its energy from its motion, making it almost pure energy traveling at the speed of light.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>What is a Quasiparticle?<\/strong><br>&#8211; A quasiparticle is a concept used to describe how a group of particles interact in a system.\u00a0<br>&#8211; Quasiparticles are <strong>not actual particles<\/strong>, but rather a <strong>way to model the collective behavior of particles<\/strong> as if they were a single particle.<br>&#8211; One type of quasiparticle is called a semi-Dirac fermion.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Types of Particles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Elementary Particles:<\/strong> These are the smallest, most basic particles. For example, quarks, leptons, and gauge bosons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Composite Particles:<\/strong> Made up of elementary particles. The most famous examples are protons and neutrons (made of quarks).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Fundamentals of Particles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Particles are broadly classified as;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fermions: <\/strong>These particles make up matter and have half-integer spins (e.g., electrons, protons, and neutrons).\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Bosons: <\/strong>These particles mediate fundamental forces between matter, such as photons for electromagnetic force and gluons for the strong force. Bosons have integer spins.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/particle-found-to-have-mass-when-moving-in-one-direction-not-another\/article69092319.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Physicists have theorized the existence of a unique particle called the semi-Dirac fermion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35723,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35722\/revisions\/35723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}