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In thermodynamics, a critical point (or critical state) is the end point of a phase equilibrium curve. One example is the liquid–vapor critical point, the end point of the pressure–temperature curve that designates conditions under which a liquid and its vapor can coexist.
At the critical point, the order parameter susceptibility will usually diverge. An example of an order parameter is the net magnetization in a ferromagnetic system undergoing a phase transition. For liquid/gas transitions, the order parameter is the difference of the densities.
The critical point is described by a conformal field theory. According to the renormalization group theory, the defining property of criticality is that the characteristic length scale of the structure of the physical system, also known as the correlation length ξ, becomes infinite. This can happen along critical lines in phase space.
Critical point (set theory), an elementary embedding of a transitive class into another transitive class which is the smallest ordinal which is not mapped to itself; Critical point (thermodynamics), a temperature and pressure of a material beyond which there is no longer any difference between the liquid and gas phases; Quantum critical point ...
Comparison of phase diagrams of carbon dioxide (red) and water (blue) showing the carbon dioxide sublimation point (middle-left) at 1 atmosphere. As dry ice is heated, it crosses this point along the bold horizontal line from the solid phase directly into the gaseous phase. Water, on the other hand, passes through a liquid phase at 1 atmosphere.
Diagram of temperature (T) and pressure (p) showing the quantum critical point (QCP) and quantum phase transitions. Talking about quantum phase transitions means talking about transitions at T = 0: by tuning a non-temperature parameter like pressure, chemical composition or magnetic field, one could suppress e.g. some transition temperature like the Curie or Néel temperature to 0 K.
A turning point of a differentiable function is a point at which the derivative has an isolated zero and changes sign at the point. [2] A turning point may be either a relative maximum or a relative minimum (also known as local minimum and maximum). A turning point is thus a stationary point, but not all stationary points are turning points. If ...
An ampule of nitrogen oxide vapor: brown nitrogen dioxide and colorless dinitrogen tetroxide, in equilibrium. In physics, a vapor (American English) or vapour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is a substance in the gas phase at a temperature lower than its critical temperature, [1] which means that the vapor can be condensed to a liquid by increasing the pressure on it without ...