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LiveScience
LiveScience
Ben Turner

Bizarre 'demon' particle found inside superconductor could help unlock a 'holy grail' of physics

Supercooled superconductor samples float above and beneath a magnet.

An elusive "demon" particle has been observed inside a superconductor nearly 70 years after it was first predicted. Its discovery could help resolve the mystery of how superconductors work. 

Pines' demon is a transparent, chargeless particle discovered inside a sample of the superconductor strontium ruthenate. It is a plasmon — a ripple across the electrons of a plasma that behaves much like a particle — meaning it's a quasiparticle. 

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