According to physicists, graphene can generate mass

    The law of conservation of mass, invented by Newton, lost its relevance more than half a century ago. With the advent of quantum physics, it became clear that it is only a special and limited case of the law of conservation of energy and is not always satisfied. When energy enters the system, the mass increases and vice versa. For example, when the iron is heated, its mass increases, and during thermonuclear reactions inside the sun, the mass of the resulting helium is less than the mass of hydrogen. In the case of the iron, energy is absorbed, and in the case of the Sun, it is released.

    The unusual properties of graphene (namely, the electrons in graphene presumably behave like Dirac fermions with zero effective mass - relativistic particles) have provided rich food for thought to theoretical physicists. For example, a group of physicists from Saudi Arabia and Moroccoput forward an interesting theory in which the alleged properties of graphene are combined with string theory, namely, with the hypothesis of compactification of measurements.

    Compactification of measurements is one of the main tenets of string theory, with the help of which string theory can be entered into the world we are observing. The reality surrounding us, according to the special theory of relativity, is four-dimensional. At the same time, string theory provides for the existence of 26 or at least 11 dimensions.

    The compactification hypothesis assumes that other dimensions exist on extremely small scales and we simply do not observe them. It is assumed that it is in the process of compactification of spaces that mass forms. Figuratively, we can say that in the process of decomposition or synthesis of physical structures, the mass does not appear and does not disappear, but simply passes into other dimensions (the mass of the proton (≈938 MeV) is several tens of times the mass of its quarks (about 11 MeV)).

    If the compactification hypothesis is true, then the weightless electrons in graphene will gain mass when the graphene is rolled into a tube, since they can fly through the axis of the tube (that is, when the 2D space is compactified into 1D).

    In other words, experiments with graphene can prove one of the most promising theories in modern physics - string theory.

    It remains only to speculate how mass generation can be used in practice, for example, in microelectronics.

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