Researchers predict, then prove strange solid-state heat switches

02-24-2023 • arclein

The discovery was founded on the useful, but confusing idea of quasiparticles, which act as if they exist, but really don't. There are only three types of particle in a solid: protons, neutrons and electrons. When packed together in a solid, these individual particles are extraordinarily difficult to predict, since the motion of each is directly acted on by all the others in a massively chaotic multi-body problem. But despite this insane complexity, there are observable emergent patterns in these systems that behave in much simpler ways, as if they're particles that have no interactions wth everything around them. Researchers have found a number of these in different systems, and have called them quasiparticles. They're effectively mathematical tools that allow scientists to work with simple behavior patterns that arise from chaotic systems.