Quasiparticles help physicists make sense of the world

Tangible products—like a solar-powered hearing aid—may come from not-so-real particles

dropleton illustration

NOT-SO-REAL PARTICLES  Liquidlike particle clusters called dropletons, illustrated here, are a type of quasiparticle. 

Courtesy of the Cundiff group and Brad Baxley/jila 

Steven Cundiff wasn’t sure what would happen when he fired a laser at a target last year.