17 April 2012 - Majorana fermions

It’s in the news that quasiparticles have been created which act as Majorana fermions. That’s straightforward enough; everybody knows that a Majorana fermion is its own antiparticle (don’t you?). But there’s a hidden implication, because Ettore Majorana himself, the inventor of the idea, went mysteriously missing in 1937. Finally we understand why: He discovered a way to meet himself.