ScienceAugust 4, 2026
quasiparticle
KWAY-zuh-par-ti-kul
Definition
A collective excitation or disturbance in a physical system that behaves as if it were a single independent particle, despite being made up of many underlying interactions.
Etymology
Derived from the Latin 'quasi' (meaning 'as if' or 'almost') and the English word 'particle,' coined to describe physical phenomena that mimic the properties of fundamental particles.
In the news
In this article, the term is used to explain that exciton Bose-Einstein condensates involve particles that act as a single unit, illustrating a broader concept of collective behavior in quantum systems.
Quantum fluid reveals hidden states that can be switched with a magnetic field
Read the full article ↗phys.org