TAMING GRAPHENE, HARVARD-LED RESEARCHERS SUCCESSFULLY
MEASURE COLLECTIVE MASS OF ‘MASSLESS’ ELECTRONS IN MOTION
Individual electrons in graphene are massless, but when they
move together, it’s a different story.
Graphene, a one-atom-thick carbon sheet, has taken the world
of physics by storm—in part, because its electrons behave as massless particles.
Yet these electrons seem to have dual personalities. Phenomena observed in the
field of graphene plasmonics suggest that when the electrons move collectively,
they must exhibit mass.