Anyons

  For decades, scientists have merely guessed it exists. They finally found proof it does. Physicists have confirmed the existence of an extraordinary,   flat  particle that could be the key that unlocks quantum computing. What  is  the rare and improbable anyon, and how on Earth did scientists verify them? “[T]hese particle-like objects only arise in realms confined to two dimensions, and then only under certain circumstances—like at temperatures near absolute zero and in the presence of a strong magnetic field,”  Discover  explains . Scientists have theorized about these flat, peculiar “particle-like objects” since the 1980s, and the very nature of them has made it sometimes seem impossible to ever verify them. But the qualities scientists believe anyons have also made them sound  very  valuable to quantum research and, now, quantum computers. The objects have many possible positions and "remember," in a way, what has happened. In a pr...