67 years after its theoretical prediction by David Pines, the elusive 'demon' particle, a massless and neutral entity in solids, has been detected in strontium ruthenate, underscoring the value of innovative research approaches. In 1956, theoretical physicist David Pines predicted that electrons
Researchers have discovered Pines’ demon, a collection of electrons in a metal that behaves like a massless wave. Credit: The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Fast forward 67 years, and a research team led by Peter Abbamonte, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign , has finally found Pines’ elusive demon. As the researchers report in the journal, they used a nonstandard experimental technique that directly excites a material’s electronic modes, allowing them to see the demon’s signature in the metal strontium ruthenate.
Demons’ neutrality means that they do not leave a signature in standard condensed matter experiments. “The vast majority of experiments are done with light and measure optical properties, but being electrically neutral means that demons don’t interact with light,” Abbamonte said. “A completely different kind of experiment was needed.
Edwin Huang, a Moore Postdoctoral Scholar at UIUC and condensed matter theorist, was eventually asked to calculate the features of strontium ruthenate’s electronic structure. “Pines’ prediction of demons necessitates rather specific conditions, and it was not clear to anyone whether strontium ruthenate should have a demon at all,” he said. “We had to perform a microscopic calculation to clarify what was going on.
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