[News] Spinons -- confined like quarks

[Michaelangelica]

Spinons -- confined like quarks

Published: Sunday, November 29, 2009 - 14:15 in Physics & Chemistry

 

The concept of confinement is one of the central ideas in modern physics.

The most famous example is that of quarks which bind together to form protons and neutrons. Now Prof. Bella Lake from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin together with an international team of scientists report for the first time an experimental realization and a proof of confinement phenomenon observed in a condensed matter system.

 

The concept of confinement states that in certain systems the constituent particles are bound together by an interaction whose strength increases with increasing particle separation. In the case of quarks they are held together by the so called strong force, a force that grows stronger with increasing distance.

As a consequence individual particles like quarks don't exist in a free state and their properties can be observed only indirectly. In the 1990s Prof Alexei Tsvelik from Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) and co-workers predicted an analogous confinement process in systems known as spin-ladders found in condensed mat-ter physics.

Experimental confirmation of this phenomenon has however only been achieved recently as described by Bella Lake et al in the current issue of the journal Nature Physics.

. . .

the spinons always appear in pairs and when they move apart, they force a reorganisation of the intervening electrons that costs energy. The energy cost grows with separation – like a rubber band." According to Bella Lake "This strong pairing up of two spinons is like quarks binding together to form subatomic particles like hadrons and mesons."

Spinons -- confined like quarks | Eureka! Science News

 

I wish i understood physics. It seems so intelligent and 'scientific.'

I am afraid, at my advanced years, it will always remain an arcane mystery.