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From new states of matter to a unification of light and electrons

Xiao-Gang Wen
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Abstract

For a long time, people believe that all possible states of matter are described by Landau symmetry-breaking theory. Recently we find that string-net condensation provide a mechanism to produce states of matter beyond the symmetry-breaking description. The collective excitations of the string-net condensed states turn out to be our old friends, photons and electrons (and other gauge bosons and fermions). This suggests that our vacuum is a string-net condensed state. Light and electrons in our vacuum have a unified origin -- string-net condensation.

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Xiao-Gang Wen. 2007-02-13. From new states of matter to a unification of light and electrons. https://doi.org/10.1143/ptps.160.351

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