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'Split' Photon Provides New Way to See Light

"Every photon can be thought of as the sum of two distinct halves," says Vincent Flynn, Guarini '22, the lead author of the paper. "We were able to identify conditions for isolating these halves from one another." Read more...

  • Vincent Flynn, Guarini '22, of the Viola Research Group, and Lorenza Viola, the James Frank Family Professor of Physics.

    From left, Vincent Flynn, Guarini ’22, of the Viola Research Group, and Lorenza Viola, the James Frank Family Professor of Physics. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)

"Every photon can be thought of as the sum of two distinct halves," says Vincent Flynn, Guarini '22, the lead author of the paper. "We were able to identify conditions for isolating these halves from one another." The theoretical discovery of the split photon—known as a "Majorana boson"—advances the fundamental understanding of light and how it behaves. Research describing the discovery was published this month in Physical Review Letters. Read more...