Discovery of Massless Demon in Superconductors

 Condensed matter physicists from the University of Illinois have successfully manifested a 'demon', an acronym for 'distinct electronic motion' with the well-known physics suffix '-on'. This 'demon', also referred to as Pine's Demon, was first theorized by physicist David Pines in 1956 and is a plasmon - a discrete wave or quasiparticle that traverses through plasma electrons, possessing no mass or charge.

This elusive quasiparticle was discovered accidentally during the analysis of strontium metal ruthenate. The team was investigating its similar properties to high-temperature superconductors despite it not being one. They stumbled upon a quasiparticle that was faster than a phonon but slower than a surface plasmon.

The research team pinpointed this 'demon' by releasing electrons from a strontium ruthenate metal crystal and meticulously measuring the energy gain. The collected energy data then helped track the quasiparticle's momentum within the material, leading to the realization that it closely matched Pine's 67-year-old prediction of a massless electron mode.

The importance of this discovery is significant for the understanding of superconductors. This 'demon' quasiparticle, being massless, could form at any energy and potentially at any temperature. 

Existing theories of superconductors, such as BCS theory, attribute superconductivity to an interaction between electrons and phonons - the natural vibrations emitted by an atomic crystal lattice. However, these theories sometimes fail to explain the zero-energy resistance of superconductors at high temperature. This suggests that other means, like the newly discovered 'demon' quasiparticle, could play a crucial role in transitioning a semimetal to superconductivity. 

Just like all scientific breakthroughs, overcoming challenges, or 'demons', is the first step - this could hold true for superconductors too.