Theoretical calculations predict the effect of self-acceleration of elementary particles

Spatial distribution of an accelerating electron wave packet. The brighter the area, the stronger the charge.

Theoretical calculations of physicists have revealed the possibility of imparting self-acceleration to elementary particles when they increase the speed of movement without the participation of an electromagnetic field. This unexpected study was conducted jointly by scientists from MIT and the Israeli Institute Technion.

However, do not rush to throw out textbooks on physics - no known laws in this case are violated. According to calculations, when applying phase-shifting masks to an elementary particle, the main part of its wave packet will be accelerated, but at the same time the whole packet will be elongated in space, compensating for this acceleration. Scientists arrived at this by presenting a new set of solutions to the Dirac equations, which describe the relativistic behavior of wave structures of elementary particles. Manipulations with this structure can, according to calculations, lead to such counterintuitive results.


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The head of research, Ido Kaminer, says : “The electron picks up speed and moves faster and faster. It looks impossible. No one expected physics to allow this to happen. But the electron wave packet is not only accelerated, it also increases in space, so part of it compensates for acceleration. The “tail” of the packet spreads backwards, so the total momentum is maintained. ”

This auto-acceleration is associated with the theory of relativity, where when moving at speeds close to the speed of light, time slows down and space is compressed. If this effect can be applied, for example, to short-lived elementary particles, scientists will have more time to study them. Kaminer argues that it is already quite possible to check all these calculations experimentally, and the team has already begun to prepare such a test.

The experiments will use an electron microscope equipped with a phase-shifting mask with a resolution of three orders of magnitude larger than those used to create holograms. According to Kaminer, this is the most accurate method of influencing the electron wave known to date.