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deepnotderp
They created roton- like quasiparticles, not exotic matter. The polariton laser is cool though.
arkades
I appreciate people posting novel scientific findings on HN. This isn’t that: this is a typically overblown press release from a uni press office. I’m not sure such explicit marketing material masquerading as a science article is a value-add here.
ascientist
As a scientist in a related field, I totally disagree. I feel this is a very balanced article. From my own experience being interviewed by popular press (and in some cases, with my work being overblown to my dismay), I particularly appreciate how Prof Vamivakas was cautious to say that applications are "down the road."

This is a press release, to be sure, but not overblown. This is legitimately an interesting result.

(Full disclosure: I am in no way connected to this work.)

lulmerchant
It's still a clickbait headline, no matter how interesting it otherwise is. "Negative mass" and "negative effective mass" change the implications quite a lot. One potentially means wormholes, warp drives, quantum gravity, faster than light travel, and time travel. The other does not.
candiodari
Aren't even things like air bubbles in water things with "negative" mass, in some of the same ways these particles described here would be ?
ISL
To address the inevitable complaint: There exists a concept called "effective mass", which can be negative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_mass_(solid-state_ph...

deepnotderp
Yes, but "negative mass " evokes the idea of non-Baryonic exotic matter. It's a nontrivial difference since exotic matter has applications for things like Alcubierre drives.
dTal
Thank you for clarifying - my immediate reaction was "oh shit, do we have warp drives now?"
lambdasquirrel
Could someone explain to a layman if this is the kind of negative mass you’d need for an Alcubierre drive? ;P
mywittyname
What are the technological implications of this?

Is there hope that this could be the future of semiconductors as a replacement for NMOS?