Fall Asleep While Learning About States Of Matter
In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about states of matter. How many are there? I'm curious to see what you find out as you try to stay awake to hear everything about them. I wish you luck! Happy sleeping!
Transcript
Welcome back,
Or welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,
Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.
I'm your host,
Benjamin Boster.
Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,
State of Matter.
In physics,
A state of matter is one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist.
Four states of matter are observable in everyday life.
Solid,
Liquid,
Gas,
And plasma.
Many intermediate states are known to exist,
Such as liquid crystals,
And some states only exist under extreme conditions,
Such as Bose-Einstein condensates and fermionic condensates in extreme cold,
Neutron-degenerate matter in extreme density,
And quark-gluon plasma at extremely high energy.
Historically,
The distinction is made based on qualitative differences in properties.
Matter in the solid state maintains a fixed volume,
Assuming no change in temperature,
Air pressure,
And shape,
With component particles,
Atoms,
Molecules,
Or ions,
Close together and fixed into place.
Matter in the liquid state maintains a fixed volume,
Assuming no change in temperature or air pressure,
But has a variable shape that adapts to fit its container.
Its particles are still close together but move freely.
Matter in the gaseous state has both variable volume and shape,
Adapting both to fit its container.
Its particles are neither close together nor fixed in place.
Matter in the plasma state has variable volume and shape and contains neutral atoms,
As well as a significant number of ions and electrons,
Both of which can move around freely.
The term phase is sometimes used as a synonym for state of matter,
But it is possible for a single compound to form different phases that are in the same state of matter.
For example,
Ice is the solid state of water,
But there are multiple phases of ice,
With different crystal structures,
Which are formed at different pressures and temperatures.
In a solid,
Constituent particles,
Ions,
Atoms,
Or molecules are closely packed together.
The forces between particles are so strong that the particles cannot move freely,
But can only vibrate.
As a result,
A solid has a stable definite shape and a definite volume.
Solids can only change their shape by an outside force,
As when broken or cut.
In crystalline solids,
The particles,
Atoms,
Molecules,
Or ions are packed in a regularly ordered repeating pattern.
There are various different crystal structures,
And the same substance can have more than one structure or solid phase.
For example,
Iron has a body-centered cubic structure at temperatures below 912 degrees Celsius,
And a face-centered cubic structure between 912 and 1904 degrees Celsius.
Ice has 15 known crystal structures,
Or 15 solid phases,
Which exist at various temperatures and pressures.
Glasses and other non-crystalline amorphous solids without long-range order are not thermal equilibrium ground states.
Therefore,
They are described below as non-classical states of matter.
Solids can be transformed into liquids by melting,
And liquids can be transformed into solids by freezing.
Solids can also change directly into gases through the process of sublimation,
And gases can likewise change directly into solids through deposition.
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container,
But retains a nearly constant volume independent of pressure.
The volume is definite if the temperature and pressure are constant.
When a solid is heated above its melting point,
It becomes liquid,
Given that the pressure is higher than the triple point of the substance.
Intermolecular or interatomic or interionic forces are still important,
But the molecules have enough energy to move relative to each other,
And the structure is mobile.
This means that the shape of the liquid is not definite,
But is determined by its container.
The volume is usually greater than that of the corresponding liquid,
The best known exception being water,
H2O.
The highest temperature at which a given liquid can exist is its critical temperature.
A gas is a compressible fluid.
Not only will a gas conform to the shape of its container,
But it will also expand to fill the container.
In a gas,
The molecules have enough kinetic energy so that the effect of intermolecular forces is small,
Or zero for an ideal gas,
And the typical distance between neighboring molecules is much greater than the molecular size.
A gas has no definite shape or volume,
But occupies the entire container in which it is confined.
A liquid may be converted to a gas by heating at constant pressure to the boiling point,
Or else by reducing the pressure at a constant temperature.
At temperatures below its critical temperature,
A gas is also called a vapor,
And can be liquefied by compression alone without cooling.
A vapor can exist in equilibrium with a liquid or solid,
In which case the gas pressure equals the vapor pressure of the liquid or solid.
A supercritical fluid,
SCF,
Is a gas whose temperature and pressure are above the critical temperature and critical pressures,
Respectively.
In this state,
The distinction between liquid and gas disappears.
A supercritical fluid has the physical properties of a gas,
But its high density confers solvent properties in some cases,
Which leads to a gas that is not liquid.
Supercritical carbon dioxide is used to extract caffeine in the manufacture of decaffeinated coffee.
A gas is usually converted to a plasma in one of two ways,
Either from a huge voltage difference between two points,
Or by exposing it to extremely high temperatures.
Heating matter to high temperatures causes electrons to leave the atoms,
Resulting in the presence of free electrons.
This creates a so-called partially ionized plasma.
At very high temperatures,
Such as those present in stars,
It is assumed that essentially all electrons are free,
And that a very high energy plasma is essentially bare nuclei swimming in a sea of electrons.
This forms the so-called fully ionized plasma.
The plasma state is often misunderstood,
And although not freely existing under normal conditions on earth,
It is quite commonly generated by either lightning,
Electric sparks,
Fluorescent lights,
Neon lights,
Or in plasma televisions.
The sun's corona,
Some types of flame,
And stars are all examples of illuminated matter in the plasma state.
Plasma is by far the most abundant of the four fundamental states,
As 99% of all ordinary matter in the universe is plasma,
As it composes all stars.
A state of matter is also characterized by phase transitions.
A phase transition indicates a change in structure,
And can be recognized by an abrupt change in properties.
A distinct state of matter can be defined as any set of states distinguished from any other set of states by a phase transition.
Water can be said to have several distinct solid states.
The appearance of superconductivity is associated with a phase transition,
So there are superconductive states.
Likewise,
Ferromagnetic states are demarcated by phase transitions and have distinctive properties.
When the change of state occurs in stages,
The intermediate steps are called mesophases.
Such phases have been exploited by the introduction of liquid crystal technology.
The state or phase of a given set of matter can change depending on pressure and temperature conditions,
Transitioning to other phases as these conditions change to favor their existence.
For example,
Solid transitions to liquid with an increase in temperature.
Near absolute zero,
A substance exists as a solid.
As heat is added to this substance,
It melts into a liquid at its melting point,
Boils into a gas at its boiling point,
And if heated high enough,
Would enter a plasma state in which the electrons are so energized that they leave their parent atoms.
Forms of matter that are not composed of molecules and organized by different forces can also be considered different states of matter.
Superfluids like fermionic condensate and the quark-gluon plasma are examples.
In a chemical equation,
The state of matter of the chemicals is shown as S for solid,
L for liquid,
And G for gas.
An aqueous solution is denoted Aq.
Matter in the plasma state is seldom used,
If at all,
In chemical equations,
So there is no standard symbol to denote it.
In the rare equations a plasma is used,
It is symbolized as P.
Glass is a non-crystalline or amorphous solid material that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state.
Glasses can be made of quite different classes of materials.
Inorganic networks,
Such as window glass made of silicate plus additives,
Metallic alloys,
Ionic melts,
Aqueous solutions,
Molecular liquids,
And polymers.
Thermodynamically,
A glass is in a metastable state with respect to its crystalline counterpart.
The conversion rate,
However,
Is practically zero.
A plastic crystal is a molecular solid with long-range positional order,
But with constituent molecules retaining rotational freedom.
In an orientational glass,
This degree of freedom is frozen in a quenched disordered state.
Similarly,
In a spin,
Glass magnetic disorder is frozen.
Liquid crystal states have properties intermediate between mobile liquids and ordered solids.
Generally,
They are able to flow like a liquid,
But exhibit long-range order.
For example,
The pneumatic phase consists of long rod-like molecules,
Such as para-oxyanosol,
Which is pneumatic in the temperature range 118 to 136 degrees Celsius.
In this state,
The molecules flow as in a liquid,
But they all point in the same direction within each domain and cannot rotate freely.
Like a crystalline solid,
But unlike a liquid,
Liquid crystals react to polarized light.
Copolymers can undergo microphase separation to form a diverse array of periodic nanostructures.
Microphase separation can be understood by analogy to the phase separation between oil and water.
Due to chemical incompatibility between the blocks,
Block copolymers undergo a similar phase separation.
However,
Because the blocks are covalently bonded to each other,
They cannot de-mix macroscopically as water and oil can,
And so instead the blocks form nanometer-sized structures.
Depending on the relative lengths of each block and the overall block topology of the polymer,
Many morphologies can be obtained,
Each its own phase of matter.
Ionic liquids also display microphase separation.
The anion and cation are not necessarily compatible and would de-mix otherwise,
But electric charge attraction prevents them from separating.
Their anions and cations appear to diffuse within compartmentalized layers,
Or micelles instead of freely as in a uniform liquid.
Transition metal atoms often have magnetic moments due to the net spin of electrons that remain unpaired and do not form chemical bonds.
In some solids,
The magnetic moments on different atoms are ordered and can form a ferromagnetic,
An interferomagnetic,
Or a ferromagnet.
In a ferromagnet,
For instance,
Solid iron,
The magnetic moment in each atom is aligned in the same direction within a magnetic domain.
If the domains are also aligned,
A solid is a permanent magnet,
Which is magnetic even in the absence of an external magnetic field.
The magnetization disappears when the magnet is heated to the Curie point,
Which for iron is 768 degrees Celsius.
An anti-ferromagnet has two networks of equal and opposite magnetic fields.
The ferromagnet has two networks of equal and opposite magnetic fields.
The ferromagnet has two networks of equal and opposite magnetic fields.
An anti-ferromagnet has two networks of equal and opposite magnetic moments,
Which cancel each other out so that the net magnetization is zero.
For example,
In nickel two oxide,
NiO,
Half the nickel atoms have moments aligned in one direction and half in the opposite direction.
In a ferromagnet,
The two networks of magnetic moments are opposite but unequal so that cancellation is incomplete and there is a non-zero net magnetization.
In a ferromagnet,
The two networks of magnetic moments are opposite but unequal so that cancellation is incomplete and there is a non-zero net magnetization.
An example is magnetite,
Fe3O4,
Which contains Fe2 plus and Fe3 plus ions with different magnetic moments.
A quantum spin liquid,
QSL,
Is a disordered state in a system of interacting quantum spins which preserves its disorder to very low temperatures,
Unlike other disordered states.
It is not a liquid in a physical sense,
But a solid whose magnetic order is inherently disordered.
The name liquid is due to an analogy with the molecular disorder in a conventional liquid.
A QSL is neither a ferromagnet,
Where magnetic domains are parallel,
Nor an anti-ferromagnetic,
Where the magnetic domains are anti-parallel.
Instead,
The magnetic domains are randomly oriented.
This can be realized by geometrically frustrated magnetic moments that cannot point uniformly parallel or anti-parallel.
When cooling down and settling to a state,
A domain must choose an orientation.
But if the possible states are similar in energy,
One will be chosen randomly.
Consequently,
Despite strong short-range order,
There is no long-range magnetic order.
Superconductors are materials which have zero electrical resistivity,
And therefore perfect conductivity.
This is a distinct physical state which exists at low temperature,
And the resistivity increases discontinuously to a finite value.
At a sharply defined transition temperature for each superconductor.
A superconductor also excludes all magnetic fields from its interior,
A phenomenon known as the Meissner effect or perfect diamagnetism.
Superconducting magnets are used as electromagnets in magnetic resonance imaging machines.
The phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered in 1911,
And for 75 years was only known in some metals and metallic alloys as temperatures below 30 Kelvin.
In 1986,
So-called high-temperature superconductivity was discovered in certain ceramic oxides,
And has now been observed in temperatures as high as 164 Kelvin.
Close to absolute zero,
Some liquids form a second liquid state described as superfluid,
Because it has zero viscosity,
Or infinite fluidity,
Flowing without friction.
This was discovered in 1937 for helium,
Which forms a superfluid below the lambda temperature of 2.
17 Kelvin.
In this state,
It will attempt to climb out of its container.
It also has infinite thermal conductivity,
So that no temperature gradient can form in a superfluid.
Placing a superfluid in a spinning container will result in quantized vortices.
These properties are explained by the theory that the quantum mechanics of superconductivity are explained by the theory that the common isotope helium-4 forms a Bose-Einstein condensate in the superfluid state.
More recently,
Fermionic condensate superfluids have been formed at even lower temperatures by the rare isotope helium-3 and by lithium-6.
In 1924,
Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose predicted the Bose-Einstein condensate,
BEC,
Sometimes referred to as the fifth state of matter.
In a BEC,
Matter stops behaving as independent particles and collapses into a single quantum state that can be described with a single uniform wave function.
In the gas phase,
The Bose-Einstein condensate remained an unverified theoretical prediction for many years.
In 1995,
The research groups of Eric Cornell and Carl Wiemann of JILA at the University of Colorado at Boulder produced the first such condensate experimentally.
A Bose-Einstein condensate is colder than a solid.
It may occur when atoms have very similar,
Or the same,
Quantum levels,
At temperatures very close to absolute zero,
Negative 273.
15 degrees Celsius.
A fermionic condensate is similar to the Bose-Einstein condensate,
Composed of fermions.
The Pauli Exclusion Principle prevents fermions from entering the same quantum state,
But a pair of fermions can behave as a boson,
And multiple such pairs can then enter the same quantum state without restriction.
Under extremely high pressure,
As in the cores of dead cells,
Under extremely high pressure,
As in the cores of dead stars,
Ordinary matter undergoes a transition to a series of exotic states of matter,
Collectively known as degenerate matter,
Which are supported mainly by quantum mechanical effects.
In physics,
Degenerate refers to two states that have the same energy and are thus interchangeable.
Degenerate matter is supported by the Pauli Exclusion Principle,
Which prevents two fermionic particles from occupying the same quantum state.
Unlike regular plasma,
Degenerate plasma expands little when heated,
Because there are simply no momentum states left.
Consequently,
Degenerate stars collapse into very high densities.
More massive degenerate stars are smaller because the gravitational force increases,
But pressure does not increase proportionally.
Electron-degenerate matter is found inside white dwarf stars.
Electrons remain bound to atoms,
But are able to transfer to adjacent atoms.
Neutron-degenerate matter is found in neutron stars.
Vast gravitational pressure compresses atoms so strongly that the electrons are forced to combine with protons via inverse beta decay,
Resulting in a super-dense conglomeration of neutrons.
Normally,
Free neutrons outside an atomic nucleus will decay with a half-life of approximately 10 minutes,
But in a neutron star the decay is overtaken by inverse decay.
Cold degenerate matter is also present in planets such as Jupiter,
And in the even more massive brown dwarfs,
Which are expected to have a core with metallic hydrogen.
Because of the degeneracy,
More massive brown dwarfs are not significantly larger.
In metals,
The electrons can be modeled as a degenerative gas moving in a lattice of non-degenerate positive ions.
In regular cold matter,
Quarks,
Fundamental particles of nuclear matter,
Are confined by the strong force into hadrons that consist of 2-4 quarks,
Such as protons and neutrons.
Quark matter,
Or quantum chromodynamical QCD matter,
Is a group of phases where the strong force is overcome and quarks are deconfined and free to move.
Quark matter phases occur at extremely high densities or temperatures,
And there are no known ways to produce them in equilibrium in the laboratory.
In ordinary conditions,
Any quark matter formed immediately undergoes radioactive decay.
Strange matter is a type of quark matter that is suspected to exist inside some neutron stars close to the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit,
Approximately 2-3 solar masses,
Although there is no direct evidence of its existence.
In strange matter,
Part of the energy available manifests as strange quarks,
A heavier analogue of the common down quark.
It may be stable at lower energy states once formed,
Although this is not known.
Quark-gluon plasma is a very high temperature phase in which quarks become free and able to move independently,
Rather than being perpetually bound into particles in a sea of gluons,
Subatomic particles that transmit the strong force that binds quarks together.
This is analogous to the liberation of electrons from atoms in a plasma.
This state is briefly attainable in extremely high-energy heavy-ion collisions in particle accelerators,
And allows scientists to observe the properties of individual quarks.
Theories predicting the existence of quark-gluon plasma were developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s,
And it was detected for the first time in the laboratory at CERN in the year 2000.
Unlike plasma,
Which flows like a gas,
Interactions within QGP are strong,
And it flows like a liquid.
At high densities,
But relatively low temperatures,
Quarks are theorized to form a quark liquid,
Whose nature is presently unknown.
It forms a distinct color-flavor-locked CFL phase at even higher densities.
This phase is superconductive for color charge.
These phases may occur in neutron stars,
But they are presently theoretical.
Color glass condensate is a type of matter theorized to exist in atomic nuclei,
Traveling near the speed of light.
According to Einstein's theory of relativity,
A high-energy nucleus appears lengths contracted or compressed along its direction of motion.
As a result,
The gluons inside the nucleus appear to a stationary observer as a gluonic wall,
Traveling near the speed of light.
At very high energies,
The density of the gluons in this wall is seen to increase greatly.
Unlike the quark-gluon plasma produced in the collision of such walls,
The color glass condensate describes the walls themselves,
And is an intrinsic property of the particles that can only be observed under high-energy conditions,
Such as those of the RHIC and possibly of the Large Hadron Collider as well.
Various theories predict new states of matter at very high energies.
An unknown state has created the baryon asymmetry in the universe,
But little is known about it.
In string theory,
A Hagedorn temperature is predicted for superstrings at about 1030 Kelvin,
Where superstrings are copiously produced.
At Planck temperature 1032 Kelvin,
Gravity becomes a significant force between individual particles.
No current theory can describe these states,
And they cannot be produced with any foreseeable experiment.
However,
These states are important in cosmology because the universe may have passed through these states in the Big Bang.
