4 ms·
These can't be cosmic strings, right?
by eleitl 5y ago
These can't be cosmic strings, right?
- zmgsabst 5y agoI would argue they’re galactic, not cosmic strings — places that the quasar formed “loop” excitations which were somehow frozen in place when it extinguished. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anyon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anyon
- steve_adams_86 5y agoWow, I had no idea about anyons. What a fascinating concept. This is probably a stupid question, but how can anything in our three dimensional world truly be two dimensional? How is that imposed on matter or energy? I thought we used 1/2/3 dimensions to help ourselves understand our world better; like theoretical tools we can use on paper or a computer to simulate and explore reality. But we actually have 2 dimensional objects in the world?
- WpgRubyDev 5y agoI don't have a reply to your question but another comment above [0] argues that Anyons don't do much to explain this particular phenomena. [0] : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30160407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30160407
- zmgsabst 5y agoSibling makes a good suggestion to read the better physics reply, and my response to it. Anyons don’t only exist in lower dimensions: because of how knot theory works, we found the simplest cases in a highly confined electrons — but there’s higher dimensions analogs for higher dimensional knots. You no longer get anyons from particles exchanging position, but rather, from when fields tangle in 2-knots. However, the rings in a magnetic field form a torus, so tangles in the magnetic field can (theoretically) knot fairly easily, eg from energies swirls in an accretion disk.