A team of quantum theorists seeking to cure a basic problem with quantum annealing computers—they have to run at a relatively slow pace to operate properly—found something intriguing instead. While probing how quantum ...
Quantum Physics
Feb 22, 2021
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2790
We are most familiar with the four conventional phases of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Changes between two phases, known as phase transitions, are marked by abrupt changes in material properties such as density. ...
General Physics
Feb 19, 2021
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40
Phase transitions are a fundamental piece of physics and chemistry. We're all familiar with different phases of water, for example, but this idea of a system of particles changing what it looks like and how it behaves is ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 28, 2021
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269
Atomically thin, 2-D hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a promising material whose protean ability to undergo phase transformations to strong, super lightweight, chemically stable, oxidation-resistant films makes them ideal ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 26, 2021
0
108
Laser beams can be used to change the properties of materials in an extremely precise way. This principle is already widely used in technologies such as rewritable DVDs. However, the underlying processes generally take place ...
General Physics
Jan 25, 2021
0
2041
Glasses have a liquid-like disordered structure but solid-like mechanical properties. This leads to one of the central mysteries of glasses: Why don't they flow like liquids? This question is so important that it was selected ...
Analytical Chemistry
Jan 18, 2021
0
34
Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology recently synthesized a novel material that displays unique thermal expansion properties. The method used by the scientists enables the production of a unique crystalline oxide containing ...
Materials Science
Dec 18, 2020
0
57
Phase transitions describe dramatic changes in properties of a macroscopic system—like the transition from a liquid to a gas. Starting from individual ultracold atoms, Heidelberg University physicists were able to observe ...
General Physics
Dec 11, 2020
0
319
NUS physicists have discovered a theoretical behavior known as the "critical skin effect" influencing how changes between different phases of matter occur.
General Physics
Dec 01, 2020
0
100
Scientists at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH) have shown that the accelerating fragmentation of society—often referred to as filter bubbles—is a direct consequence of the growing number of social contacts. According ...
Social Sciences
Nov 18, 2020
5
249
A phase transition is a natural physical process. It has the characteristic of taking a given medium with given properties and transforming some or all of that medium, into a new medium with new properties. Phase transitions occur frequently and are found everywhere in the natural world. Some engineering techniques exploit certain types of phase transition.
In thermodynamics, a phase transition is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase to another.
At a phase transition point, physical properties may undergo abrupt change: for instance, the volume of the two phases may be vastly different as is illustrated by the boiling of liquid water to form steam.
The term is most commonly used to describe transitions between solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter, in rare cases including plasma.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
