Majorana Particle Glimpsed In Lab

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17695944

The existance of the Majorana Fermion particle has been strictly theoretical until lately when supposed evidence of the particle was seen. This subatomic particle is different from any other in the traditional structure of the atom as it is thought that it is completely equal to its own anti-particle. When the Majorana Fermion comes together with its anti-particle, the positron, they are said to annihilate each other causing a flash of gamma radiation to be released. The evidence of the particle was found in an experiment using a small electrical device. With more information on the particles, it is thought that advances in quantum mechanics could be made, including the possibility of a quantum computer operating at extermely high speeds. In the future It will be interesting to see if further, more concrete evidence of the particle is found, and if so, what will this mean in terms of explanations for physical phenomena? Will they have to be modified slightly, or completely redefined? Only more research and experimentation will provide the answers to these questions.

I never thought I’d read something that stated that a particle could be its own antiparticle. But then again this is physics, so really anything is possible lol. I’m a bit confused though if the majorana particle is equal to its antiparticle does this mean that they don’t destroy each other? Because regular electrons and their antiparticles (positrons) come in contact with each other they undergo annihilation, so if majoranas behave differently would that mean they don’t undergo annihilation?

On an aside I think it’s kind of ironic that to find new particles we have the large hadron collider that’s absolutely massive but to find out more about these majoranas we have to use super small electronic devices even though they’re basically all very minuscule particles. In the device they used the conductance dropped on either end of the wire, so they believe that the Majorana particles are there. Hopefully they’ll be able to isolate and observe those areas more closely and then eventually obtain a majorana particle and be able to study it.

The idea of a quantum computer is just mind blowing. To have a computer that runs based on quantum mechanics would mean that the computing speed would be ridiculously fast. Even though we’re so far away from having that, it’s still an incredible idea. I’m guessing that if it is produced it wouldn’t be available to regular citizens like us, but rather to scientists working at universities and conducting research.