Majorana Fermions
Q. The term Majorana Fermions refer to- Published on 13 Apr 16a. Fermion that is its own antiparticle
b. Fermion that is not its own antiparticle
c. Charged Fermions
d. Ki97
ANSWER: Fermion that is its own antiparticle
- A Majorana fermion also referred to as a Majorana particle, is a fermion that is its own antiparticle. They were hypothesized by Ettore Majorana in 1937.
- The term is sometimes used in opposition to a Dirac fermion, which describes fermions that are not their own antiparticles.
- Because particles and antiparticles have opposite conserved charges, Majorana fermions must be uncharged.
- The only possible candidate for a fundamental Majorana fermion in the Standard Model is the neutrino, since all the other fermions have charge.
- All of the Standard Model fermions except the neutrino behave as Dirac fermions at low energy (after electroweak symmetry breaking), but the (massive) nature of the neutrino is not settled and it may be either Dirac or Majorana.
