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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Building on Einstein's work, Filipina physicist explores uncommon subatomic particles

Building on Einstein's work, Filipina physicist explores uncommon subatomic particles

Published Sep 5, 2023 01:03 pm

A brilliant Filipina physicist, Dr. Gennevieve Macam, along with other researchers, made an outstanding contribution to the field of Science by exploring a special class of subatomic particles known as Weyl fermions.
 

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(Photo credit to UPD)

These particles can be described using concepts from the "Theory of Relativity" by no less than one of history's greatest and most influential minds --- Albert Einstein.

Dr. Gennevieve Macam of the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Science National Institute of Physics (UPD-CS NIP) and other researchers were looking into Weyl fermions — these are exotic subatomic particles that are comparable to electrons with the absence of mass.

"Our work shows how Einstein's equations can be adapted to describe quantum materials," Macam said.

In their study, the group discovered that by applying Einstein's views on causality, they could understand the behavior of these particles, though slightly different from electrons.

Weyl fermions were first proposed by German physicist Hermann Weyl in 1929. As a result of their charged but massless nature, their existence was only confirmed nearly a century later, in the year 2015.

"This paves the way to a better understanding of how the strange quantum world and our everyday reality are intertwined," Macam explained.

The said study was co-authored by Prof. Guoqing Chang of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and his researchers.

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University of the Philippine Diliman
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