The physicist Paul Dirac in 1928 predicted that every particle in the universe has an anti-particle. The anti-particle is a particle's identical twin but with opposite charge. When the two particles, particle and anti-particle, annihilate each other in releasing a burst of energy.
The physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937 predicted that fermions, a class of particles that includes protons, neutrons, eletrons, neutrinos, and quarks, should be their own anti-particles.
80 Year Search Concluded
For 80 years scientist have searched for the Majorana fermion. That search concluded when a team of scientists led by UC-Irvine Associate Professor Jing Xia and UCLA Professor Kang Wang published their finding July 20 in Science.
"Chiral" Fermion
The team observed a Majorana fermion particle type known as the "chiral" fermion. The "chiral" fermion moves in just one direction along a one-dimensional parth.
The Angel Particle
The team of scientists have named this "chiral" Majorana fermion the "angel particle" in reference to the best-selling thriller "Angels and Demons".
Far in the Future Use of the Angel Particle in Quantum Computers
A current limitation of the development of quantum computers is they are thrown off by environmental noise. Majorana fermion could make quantum computers more robust by significantly reduce the chances of information being lost due to external pertubations in the environment. The quantum computer could be hundreds of millions times more powerful than today's normal computer.
Sources and Full Articles
Experiment finds evidence for the Majorana fermion, a particle that's its own antiparticle, Phys.Ord, 20 July 2017
‘Angel Particle’ found which could lead to 100 MILLION times faster computers, EXPRESS, 21 July 2017
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