Physicists see hints of Majorana fermions

Evidence for the existence of "Majorana fermions" – theoretically proposed particles that are also their own anti-particles – could be seen in the behaviour of a novel Josephson junction. That is the view of physicists at Stanford University in the US, who have examined the properties of a Josephson junction that incorporates material called a "topological insulator" sandwiched between two superconducting contacts. The researchers found significant deviations from what is seen in conventional Josephson junctions – differences that they believe could be explained in terms of Majorana-like quasiparticles.