Negative mass created in lab

[insert_name]

Negative mass has been created in a lab. 

http://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-say-they-ve-created-a-fluid-with-negative-mass

[Steel]

I have a feeling this is being overhyped as something that it is not. As far as I can tell the paper is reporting on negative effective mass, not negative mass.  From what I remember from my solid-state physics, negative effective mass (which is what the paper is about) is a very well known phenomenon.

Will read the paper and report back.

EDIT: So I've skimmed the paper, it's a false alarm. The paper reports on the behavior of a Bose-Einstein Condensate of rubidium atoms (i.e atoms that most definitely have a positive mass) that is put into a regime whereby it has a negative effective mass. Negative effective mass is a well known and well studied area of solid state physics, indeed the electrons in a simple 1D metal lattice can have negative effective mass . What's interesting and novel about this research is that the whole condensate is put into a negative effective mass state, so that the researchers could actually probe the properties of the system. However, effective mass =/= mass! Effective mass is just a convenient way of encapsulating the behaviour of the system.

TL;DR: Scientists cooled down some rhubidium atoms to a point where they behave like they have (but do not physically have) a negative mass. Very exciting for the scientists, not that exciting for everyone else.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Steel

[p1t1o]

My immediate skepticism is tempered by statements like: [emphasis my own]

"behaved as if it had negative mass"

"A negative effective mass.."

"...whose dispersion features a region of negative effective mass."

"...managed to get a fluid of superchilled atoms to act as though it has negative mass"

 

Accelerating in the opposite direction to applied force can cause paradoxes including perpetual motion and infinite free energy, so I think its best to hold off a while on statements like "negative mass has been created". If a truly groundbreaking form of matter has been found, we will have it strongly confirmed in due course.

 

*edit*

ninj'd slightly by @Steel

Edited April 13, 2017 by p1t1o

[YNM]

It's not negative mass-energy ? Then what for...

[kerbiloid]

In antikilograms

[lajoswinkler]

Quantum phenomenon, yet the article title goes like there's an upside down beaker somewhere in a lab, full of upward falling liquid. Clickbait.

It would be the same as if someone would talk about electron gas as something you can put in a balloon. But worse.

Edited April 17, 2017 by lajoswinkler

[p1t1o]

15 hours ago, lajoswinkler said:

Quantum phenomenon, yet the article title goes like there's an upside down beaker somewhere in a lab, full of upward falling liquid. Clickbait.

It would be the same as if someone would talk about electron gas as something you can put in a balloon. But worse.

Reminds me of that article that talked about "molecules of light" which will definitely allow us to build lightsabers.