Bizarre Subatomic “Quasiparticle” Reproduces Like a Living Cell

Bizarre Subatomic “Quasiparticle” Reproduces Like a Living Cell

Dan Robitzski

For the first time, scientists have found that a bizarre subatomic “quasiparticle,” called a skyrmion, that’s capable of reproducing itself in an unusual way.

A skyrmion is considered a quasiparticle because it acts like a subatomic particle in many ways, but doesn’t have any mass. In an experiment probing how skyrmions are formed that was published in the journal NANO Letters, a team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory learned that they actually split in two and reproduce — not unlike a biological cell.

Skyrmion structures can grow through an additive process, in which their crystalline pattern expands outward as new skyrmions are formed, according to the study.

But it’s actually preferred — energetically favorable at the nanoscale level — for them to split in two and self-repair, an unprecedented parallel between particle physics and cellular biology.