Phase transitions as a research area investigates qualitative changes in the macroscopic state of matter or systems as control parameters such as temperature, pressure, or external fields are varied, with emphasis on critical phenomena, universality, and order-parameter behavior. It encompasses equilibrium and nonequilibrium transitions, including first- and second-order transitions, symmetry breaking, renormalization-group theory, and scaling laws. The field spans condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics, and interdisciplinary complex systems, using analytical, numerical, and experimental methods to characterize phase diagrams, critical exponents, collective excitations, and emergent structures, and to understand how microscopic interactions give rise to distinct thermodynamic or dynamical phases.
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have created the first-ever atomic movies showing how atoms rearrange locally within a quantum material as it transitions from an insulator ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 26, 2024
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A supercrystal formation previously unobserved in a metal-insulating material was discovered by a Cornell-led research team, potentially unlocking new ways to engineer materials and devices with tunable electronic properties.
Condensed Matter
Jul 23, 2024
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94
With just the flick of a switch, quantum materials can undergo drastic changes. One notable example is the insulator-to-metal transition, a reversible physical phenomenon in which a material shifts from an insulating state, ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 15, 2024
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142
Exploration of exotic quantum phase transitions has always been a focus in condensed matter physics. Critical phenomena in a phase transition are entirely determined by the universality class, which is controlled by the spatial ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 12, 2024
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170
In a study published in Nature, a research team has, for the first time, observed the antiferromagnetic phase transition within a large-scale quantum simulator of the fermionic Hubbard model (FHM).
Superconductivity
Jul 10, 2024
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241
In a paper recently published in Physical Review Letters, Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers offer a new theory that predicts defect density across a variety of phase transitions. The research opens new routes for ...
General Physics
Jun 18, 2024
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344
A research group from University of Tsukuba has discovered that fluctuations of electron spins in magnetic materials trigger a large anomalous Hall effect during phase transition known as the devil's staircase magnetic transition.
Condensed Matter
Jun 18, 2024
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199
When a magnet is heated up, it reaches a critical point where it loses magnetization. Called "criticality," this point of high complexity is reached when a physical object is transitioning smoothly from one phase into the ...
General Physics
Jun 10, 2024
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1073
Three-dimensional (3D) antiferromagnets are materials in which magnetic moments of atoms or ions are arranged in a 3D lattice structure with neighboring spins aligned in opposite directions. Physicists have observed a fascinating ...
Recently, a research group developed a giant magneto-superelasticity of 5% in a Ni34Co8Cu8Mn36Ga14 single crystal. This was achieved by introducing arrays of ordered dislocations to form preferentially oriented martensitic ...
Condensed Matter
May 30, 2024
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