KOREAN NET

This image presents "dark electrons" in solid material. (Yonsei University professor Kim Keun Su)

By Wu Jinhua

A domestic research team has achieved a world first in proving the existence of "dark electrons."

The Ministry of Science and ICT on July 29 said the team led by Yonsei University professor Kim Keun Su discovered such particles that are not observable through light in solid materials.

With the support of a basic research project of the ministry, the study had its findings published on July 29 in Nature Physics, a U.K.-based monthly scientific journal.

Dark electrons are substances hard to observe because they do not absorb or emit light in a dark state.

Such electrons were thought to exist only in atoms and molecules, with their existence in a dark state considered impossible in solid matter with regularly arranged atoms.

The team conducted research for four years before devising a model explaining dark electrons and verifying their existence even in solid matter.

"Our discovery of dark electrons in solids went beyond the recognition of invisible matter, and could provide clues to understanding quantum phenomena impossible to explain when their existence was unknown," Kim said. "Based on this result, we will seek to unlock the secrets of high-temperature superconductivity, a longtime conundrum of modern physics."

jane0614@korea.kr