Device creates particles with negative mass, and a novel way to generate lasers | Hacker News Reader

Device creates particles with negative mass, and a novel way to generate lasers

rochester.edu

24 pointssethbannon14 comments

To address the inevitable complaint: There exists a concept called "effective mass", which can be negative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_mass_(solid-state_ph...

Yes, but "negative mass " evokes the idea of non-Baryonic exotic matter. It's a nontrivial difference since exotic matter has applications for things like Alcubierre drives.

Thank you for clarifying - my immediate reaction was "oh shit, do we have warp drives now?"

They created roton- like quasiparticles, not exotic matter. The polariton laser is cool though.

I appreciate people posting novel scientific findings on HN. This isn’t that: this is a typically overblown press release from a uni press office. I’m not sure such explicit marketing material masquerading as a science article is a value-add here.

As a scientist in a related field, I totally disagree. I feel this is a very balanced article. From my own experience being interviewed by popular press (and in some cases, with my work being overblown to my dismay), I particularly appreciate how Prof Vamivakas was cautious to say that applications are "down the road."

This is a press release, to be sure, but not overblown. This is legitimately an interesting result.

(Full disclosure: I am in no way connected to this work.)

It's still a clickbait headline, no matter how interesting it otherwise is. "Negative mass" and "negative effective mass" change the implications quite a lot. One potentially means wormholes, warp drives, quantum gravity, faster than light travel, and time travel. The other does not.