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.
Ferroic materials such as ferromagnets and ferroelectrics underpin modern data storage, yet face limits: They switch slowly, or suffer from unstable polarization due to depolarizing fields respectively. A new class, ferroaxials, ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 10, 2025
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Ice cream comes in many different flavors. But even pure ice, which consists only of water molecules, has been discovered to exist in more than 20 different solid forms or phases that differ in the arrangement of the molecules. ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 10, 2025
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A supercritical fluid refers to a state in which the temperature and pressure of a substance exceed its critical point, where no distinction exists between liquid and gas phases. Traditionally, it has been regarded as a single, ...
General Physics
Oct 2, 2025
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Members of the STAR collaboration, a group of physicists collecting and analyzing data from particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), have published a new high-precision analysis of data on the number ...
General Physics
Sep 29, 2025
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Caltech scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)–based method that dramatically speeds up calculations of the quantum interactions that take place in materials. In new work, the group focuses on interactions ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 16, 2025
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Phases of matter are the basic states that matter can take—like water that can occur in a liquid or ice phase. Traditionally, these phases are defined under equilibrium conditions, where the system is stable over time. But ...
Quantum Physics
Sep 10, 2025
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Imagine a clock that doesn't have electricity, but its hands and gears spin on their own for all eternity. In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used liquid crystals, the same materials that ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 5, 2025
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In everyday life, all matter exists as either a gas, liquid, or solid. In quantum mechanics, however, it is possible for two distinct states to exist simultaneously. An ultracold quantum system, for instance, can exhibit ...
Soft Matter
Aug 28, 2025
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Water still has unknown sides. When water is forced into two dimensions by enclosing it in appropriate materials, new properties, phase transitions, and structures emerge. MXenes as a class of materials offer a unique platform ...
Nanophysics
Aug 18, 2025
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Some of Earth's largest climate systems may collapse not with a bang, but with a whimper. Surprisingly, experiments with magnets are helping us understand how.
Environment
Jul 30, 2025
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