Many headlines follow high-energy physicists’ search for new particles, but with much less fanfare, materials physicists discovered one! The anyon is a particle that only exists in solids and is fundamentally different than electrons, protons, light, and anything else in the Standard Model. Hints were first seen in 1982, but anyons were only definitively confirmed in 2020. They seemingly required a large magnetic field until they were predicted to appear in "moiré" materials, two atomically thin sheets with a small twist between them. A few years ago, materials physicists were able to make such systems and observed not only anyons but a multitude of other surprises. Let’s dive into the wonderful and rapidly developing physics of moiré materials!
