Observation of Fermionic Quasiparticles Vanishing in Slow Motion

Researchers have observed fermionic quasiparticles slowly "disappearing" near a quantum phase transition in a heavy-fermion compound, marking the first direct observation of this phenomenon. Unlike bosons, fermions are not typically involved in phase transitions. The study used terahertz time-domain spectroscopy to measure the critical slowing near the transition and extract a parameter known as the critical exponent. This research provides insights into the stability of fermionic quasiparticles and could have implications for quantum information technology.