From new states of matter to a unification of light and electrons

TL;DR

This paper explores how string-net condensation offers a framework to unify light and electrons as collective excitations of a novel state of matter, extending beyond traditional symmetry-breaking theories.

Contribution

It introduces string-net condensation as a mechanism for states of matter that unify photons and electrons, proposing a new perspective on the vacuum state.

Findings

String-net condensation can produce states with emergent photons and electrons.

The vacuum may be a string-net condensed state.

Light and electrons share a common origin in string-net theory.

Abstract

For a long time, people believe that all possible states of matter are described by Landau symmetry-breaking theory. Recently we find that string-net condensation provide a mechanism to produce states of matter beyond the symmetry-breaking description. The collective excitations of the string-net condensed states turn out to be our old friends, photons and electrons (and other gauge bosons and fermions). This suggests that our vacuum is a string-net condensed state. Light and electrons in our vacuum have a unified origin -- string-net condensation.