Shaking bosons into fermions
Friday, December 4, 2015 - 10:23
in Physics & Chemistry
Particles can be classified as bosons or fermions. A defining characteristic of a boson is its ability to pile into a single quantum state with other bosons. Fermions are not allowed to do this. One broad impact of fermionic anti-social behavior is that it allows for carbon-based life forms, like us, to exist. If the universe were solely made from bosons, life would certainly not look like it does. Recently, JQI theorists have proposed an elegant method for achieving transmutation—that is, making bosons act like fermions. This work was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.