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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.
In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states of matter : solid , liquid , and gas , and in rare cases, plasma .
Matter organizes into various phases or states of matter depending on its constituents and external factors like pressure and temperature. Except at extreme temperatures and pressures, atoms form the three classical states of matter: solid , liquid and gas .
This causes the water vapour to change directly into a solid. Another example is the soot that is deposited on the walls of chimneys. Soot molecules rise from the fire in a hot and gaseous state. When they come into contact with the walls they cool, and change to the solid state, without formation of the liquid state.
When a substance undergoes a phase transition (changes from one state of matter to another) it usually either takes up or releases energy. For example, when water evaporates, the increase in kinetic energy as the evaporating molecules escape the attractive forces of the liquid is reflected in a decrease in temperature.
When a system undergoes a change from one state to another, it is said to traverse a path. The path can be described by how the properties change, like isothermal (constant temperature) or isobaric (constant pressure) paths. Thermodynamics sets up an idealized conceptual structure that can be summarized by a formal scheme of definitions and ...
2000 – CERN announced quark-gluon plasma, a new phase of matter. [28] 2023 – Physicists from US and China discovered a new state of matter called the chiral bose-liquid state [29] 2024 – Harvard researchers working with Quantinuum announced a new phase of matter non-Abelian topological order [30]
A cosmological phase transition is an overall change in the state of matter across the whole universe. The success of the Big Bang model led researchers to conjecture possible cosmological phase transitions taking place in the very early universe, at a time when it was much hotter and denser than today. [1] [2]