After the Discovery of the “God Particle” in 2008, now another milestone discovery in physics is announced by the scientists, that is, the discovery of the “angel particle.” The scientists at Stanford and University of California found the evidence for particles that are their own antiparticles. They are technically called “Majorana fermions.” The discovery was announced on July 20, 2017.

In 1928, Paul Dirac, a renowned quantum physicist made the astonishing prediction that every particle in the universe will have its antiparticle – its identical twin but with opposite charge. If particle and antiparticle meet together they would annihilate each other in an explosion. Eventually the antiparticle of electron, positron, was discovered a few years later. Later in 1937, another physicist, Ettore Majorana, predicted that there are fermion particles – family of particles including protons, neutrons, electrons, neutrino and quarks – that are their own antiparticles. Now the new team of scientists found the first firm evidence for such a Majoran fermion in a series of lab experiments on exotic materials at the University of California. “This discovery concludes one of the most intensive searches in fundamental physics, which spanned exactly 80 years.” Said Zhang, a theoretical physicist and one of the senior authors of the research.

They suggest the name ‘angel particle’ for the new particle. This name is recommended in reference to the best selling 2000 novel by Dan Brown, Angels and Demons, that narrates a secret plot to blow up the Vatican with a time bomb using matter-antimatter annihilation. Unlike in the thriller novel, in the quantum world of the Majorana fermion there are no demons, but only angels.

This discovery has far reaching applications for the development of most sophisticated quantum computers. However, more than its technical application, the discovery is said to be more intellectual generating more questions regarding the nature of matter and the physical reality. It implies revisioning the traditional conceptions of matter as passive, and inert. The new vision of matter will carry certain and radical implications for understanding the theological conceptions of human soul, resurrection of the body, etc.