+ - Discovery could lead to computer revolution 1
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham have shown that the electron can be divided into other particles.
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009073101
From the article published 31 July 2009;
"The electron is a fundamental building block of nature and is indivisible in isolation, yet a new experiment has shown that electrons, if crowded into narrow wires, are seen to split apart."
The new particles are called the Spinon and Holon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(physics)"
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009073101
From the article published 31 July 2009;
"The electron is a fundamental building block of nature and is indivisible in isolation, yet a new experiment has shown that electrons, if crowded into narrow wires, are seen to split apart."
The new particles are called the Spinon and Holon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(physics)"
Not the first (Score:2)
This was not the first observation of spin-charge separation: Lawrence Berkeley Labs, 2006 [lbl.gov].
Also, the spinon and holon are not particles, but quasiparticles [wikipedia.org] (like holes - the absence of an electron in a semiconductor). The difference is important.