What are the different states of matter
Two new aggregate states have been discovered: ranging from extraneous quasicrystals to a synthetic material that is both ordered and disordered. They are the subject of two separate studies.
Have you ever heard of a substance called quasicrystal, which is also a superfluid? And of a material that is both ordered and disordered.
What are the Different States of Matter
Which exhibits behavior intermediate between classical behavior and quantum behavior? These are two new physical states that are added to the classic and more familiar.
Ones, such as solid, liquid, gas (and then there is quantum plasma). These discoveries are the result of studies by two different research groups in physics.
A discipline that is always offering new possibilities – often bizarre or – to know worlds, from infinitely small to vast. This is all about it.
Superfluid Quasic Crystals
This fact has been substantiated today by a research team from the University of Texas at Dallas and the results are published in Physical Review Letters.
There is a fairly unusual material called superfluid, in which a liquid cooled to a very low temperature can flow quickly and completely and is not viscous at all.
For example, if our coffee is too runny, after stirring it with a spoon, it won’t stop stirring, as if there was no friction with the cup.
In this case, however, the superfluid is also a quasi-crystal. In general, a crystal – such as a salt – is a solid structure in which the atoms are arranged in a regular and repeated (periodic) manner on a three-dimensional chessboard.
Also in this case, as the name suggests, the quasicrystal adopts the same behavior as the crystal: the structure is similar, but the arrangement of the atoms is not regular, i.e. it does not repeat periodically.
In this case, however, the quasicrystal is also superfluid, giving the solid body properties related to the liquid.
But how can a solid also be a liquid?
The answer is “with quanta”, where the constraints of classical physics can often be overcome. Indeed, the researchers theorize a new exotic aggregate state represented.
By the meeting between superfluidity and the strength of quasicrystals. At the moment, it is a theory, although well structured.
“The good news,” explains physicist Chuanwei Zhang, one of the study’s authors, “is that you don’t have to invent a new technology to make this material.”
Besides being new, it may also have interesting properties for better understanding of all the properties of the material and also for applications (think of the properties of superfluids used in so-called dilution coolers).
Find out of order
Physicists “spin doctors” at Los Alamos National Laboratory have identified a new state of aggregation based on an ordered artificial material, spin ice, which is actually a system of classical physics – one that describes.
All natural and macroscopic phenomena. does. What we know (for example the laws of collapse and thermodynamics). However, in this case “classical” material obeys.
The laws of quantum physics – which are part of so-called modern physics – which describe what happens in the invisible world of atoms.
Particles and has its own laws and other laws in classical are physics. The results are published in Nature Physics and are available in full on ArXiv.
In short, the new physical state will be a kind of hybrid, halfway between these two worlds.
Spin ice is a special material that also occurs in nature (like the mineral titanite), which behaves like ice at very low temperatures.
Typically this material is sensitive to changes in temperature and loses energy upon cooling. In the spin ice (with power geometry) created by the researchers, however, the energy remained constant despite cooling.
This property gives an element of disorder that violates the laws of classical physics, in particular some principles of thermodynamics.
The reason for this is likely to lie in some so-called topological properties that make these mirrors a hybrid between classical and quantum physics.
And now researchers want to see if such materials even exist in nature, as they may have important properties such as high electrical conductivity.
State Particle Models
The properties of classical aggregation states can be explained with a particle model. It is believed that matter is made up of the smallest particles.
In fact these small particles (atoms, molecules or ions) have a different shape, but to explain the physical states it is enough to treat the particles as small round spheres.
The average kinetic energy of all particles is a measure of temperature in all states. The type of movement is completely different in the three composite states.
In a gas, the particles travel in a straight line like billiard balls until they collide with each other or the wall of the container.
In a liquid, particles must squeeze through the spaces between their neighbors (diffusion, Brownian molecular motion). In a solid body, particles oscillate only around their resting position.
Fixed
Motion: Particles smaller than a solid are less in motion. They rotate around a fixed position, their position on the grid, and mainly around their axes.
The higher the temperature, the more violently they vibrate/rotate and the distance between the particles increases (more often than not). Exception: Density discrepancy.
Note: If we observe particles with quantum mechanical principles, then because of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, the particles should never remain stationary.
They have small fluctuations, also called zero point fluctuations. This corresponds to the original position of the harmonic oscillator.
Attraction: Various forces act between small particles, i.e. van der Waals force, electrostatic force between ions, hydrogen bonds or covalent bonds.
The type of force is determined by the atomic structure of the particles (ions, molecules, dipoles, …). The attraction to solids is particularly strong even at high temperatures.
Liquid
Motion: Particles are not stationary like solids, but they can move with each other. As the temperature increases, the movement of the particles becomes faster and faster.
Attraction: Due to heat, the motion of particles is so strong that the interaction forces are no longer sufficient to hold the particles in place. The particles can now move freely.
Distance: Although the distance between particles becomes slightly larger due to higher speed (most solids take up more space as they dissolve), the particles are still attached to each other.
Arrangement: Although the particles constantly rearrange and move/rotate, an arrangement can be determined. It is similar to short-range order amorphous solids, but the viscosity is much lower, i.e. H. Particles are more mobile.
Gaseous
From a physical point of view, both are nothing but the gaseous state of aggregation; Nor do the terms have a direct relation to a real gas and an ideal gas.
What is colloquially called “vapor” is, in physical terms, a mixture of liquid and gaseous components, called wet vapor in the case of water.
Vapor in the strict sense is a state of equilibrium between the liquid phase and the gas phase. It can be liquefied without doing any work i.e. no pressure increases during liquefaction.
In technology this type of steam is called wet steam in contrast to so-called superheated steam or superheated steam, which is actually a real gas composed of water molecules.
Whose temperature is higher than the condensation temperature of the liquid phase. Pressure.
Examples of values of selected substances
Pure substances at a temperature of 20 °C and at a pressure of 1013.25 hPa (normal pressure) are called solid, liquid or gaseous depending on their physical state.
Although these terms are also used for the respective physical states of substances themselves, strictly speaking they refer only to those states and are therefore only substance specific and independent of pressure and temperature.
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