Researchers reported evidence for a new kind of massless fermion-like electronic state in a surface layer of silicon. It is not a newly discovered fundamental particle: the claim concerns how electrons behave in a material. The key distinction is geometric—the reported states form strongly anisotropic planes in the material’s electronic structure, rather than the cones associated with Dirac fermions.
What does “massless fermion” mean in this report?
In this context, “massless” describes an electronic state in a solid, not an electron that has literally lost its rest mass. In materials physics, the phrase refers to the way electrons’ energy changes with their momentum in a particular electronic structure. The authors report a class of such states in silicon’s surface layer.
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The terminology can sound like particle physics, but the result is a condensed-matter finding: it concerns electron behavior in a material. The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) abstract says the distinct electronic structures “exist and can be found in a surface layer of silicon.” Read the RSC article record.
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How are these states different from Dirac fermions?
The paper contrasts the new states with Dirac fermions, familiar from discussions of graphene. The comparison is about the shape of the electronic structure and how strongly it depends on direction—not about two kinds of fundamental particles.
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| Feature | Dirac fermions in the comparison | Reported silicon states |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic-structure shape | Cones | Planes |
| Directional behavior | Described in the abstract as isotropic context | Strongly anisotropic and “fortune teller-like” |
The plane-versus-cone distinction is the central idea. “Fortune teller-like” is a visual description of the reported structure; it is not a separate particle name. The publisher’s abstract gives this qualitative contrast but does not state a numerical measure of anisotropy.
What did the study establish—and what did it not?
The authors report evidence that these distinct electronic structures occur in a surface layer of silicon. That is a materials-physics result. The available abstract does not establish a finished device, a commercial application, or a measured performance improvement.
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Chemistry World presented graphene-like materials with new properties as a possible research implication, not as an outcome demonstrated by the study. Its account is “A new class of massless fermion”.
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The study, “Experimental evidence of a new class of massless fermions,” was first published by the RSC on 11 December 2019. It appeared in Nanoscale Horizons in 2020, volume 5, pages 679–682, DOI 10.1039/C9NH00681H. The authors are Marek Kopciuszyński, Mariusz Krawiec, Lucyna Żurawek, and Ryszard Zdyb of the Institute of Physics at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland.
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