Spin-Statistics Theorem Survives Test
BERKELEY, Calif., June 28, 2010 — The most rigorous trials yet of a fundamental assumption about how particles behave on the atomic scale has been conducted at the University of California at Berkeley.
"We tested one of the major theoretical pillars of quantum field theory, the spin-statistics theorem," said Damon English, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of UC Berkeley's Department of Physics, who led the experiment. "Essentially we were asking, are photons really perfect bosons?"
A pump laser provides the...