Back Fermió de Majorana Catalan Majorana-fermion Danish Majorana-Fermion German Majorana fermiono Esperanto Fermión de Majorana Spanish فرمیون مایورانا Persian Particule de Majorana French Majorana-dieltsje Frisian Fermión de Majorana Galician Fermione di Majorana Italian
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In particle physics a Majorana fermion (/maɪəˈrɑːnə/[1]) or Majorana particle is a fermion that is its own antiparticle. They were hypothesised by Ettore Majorana in 1937. The term is sometimes used in opposition to Dirac fermion, which describes fermions that are not their own antiparticles.
With the exception of neutrinos, all of the Standard Model elementary fermions are known to behave as Dirac fermions at low energy (lower than the electroweak symmetry breaking temperature), and none are Majorana fermions. The nature of neutrinos is not settled – they may not be either Dirac or Majorana fermions.
In condensed matter physics, quasiparticle excitations can appear like bound Majorana states. However, instead of a single fundamental particle, they are the collective movement of several individual particles (themselves composite) which are governed by non-Abelian statistics.
- ^ "Quantum Computation possible with Majorana Fermions" on YouTube, uploaded 19 April 2013, retrieved 5 October 2014; and also based on the pronunciation of physicist's name.