Related papers: States of matter
Lecture Goals: (i) Introduction to the basic concepts, meaning that the emphasis is, in the first instance, on the single-particle aspects. (ii) Service for Experimental Solid State Physics. (iii) Emphasis on the explanation of concepts and…
Almost all models of the universe start by assuming that matter fields can be modelled as dust. In the real universe, however, matter is clumped into dense objects that are separated by regions of space that are almost empty. If we are to…
One of the basic concepts of modern physics with a long prehistory is a fluid, which means a substance that flows under an applied shear stress. In this sense fluids form a wide subset of the phases of matter that includes liquids, dense…
In this paper, we recall various features of non equilibrium granular systems. Clusters with specific properties are found depending on the packing density, going from loose (a granular gas) to sintered (though brittle) polycrystalline…
A wide range of materials can exist in microscopically disordered solid forms, referred to as amorphous solids or glasses. Such materials -- oxide glasses and metallic glasses, to polymer glasses, and soft solids such as colloidal glasses,…
One of the main activities in science teaching, and in particular in Physics teaching, is not only the discussion of both modern problems and problems which solution is an urgent matter. It means that the picture of an active and alive…
The Marginally Rigid State is a candidate paradigm for what makes granular material a state of matter distinct from both liquid and solid. Coordination number is identified as a discriminating characteristic, and for rough-surfaced…
Although well established observations on cosmological, cluster, and galactic scales strongly suggest the existence of dark matter (DM), our understanding of its non-gravitational properties is still lacking. I review basic aspects of…
The study of systems with sustained energy uptake and dissipation at the scale of the constituent particles is an area of central interest in nonequilibrium statistical physics. Identifying such systems as a distinct category -- Active…
Amorphous solids are mechanically rigid while possessing a disordered structure similar to that of dense liquids. Recent research indicates that dynamical heterogeneity, spatio-temporal fluctuations in local dynamical behavior, might help…
To the astrophysicist faced with the puzzle of dark matter, this one appears under two different aspects: on the one hand in cosmology, i.e. at very large scales, where it seems to be made of a bath of particles; on the other hand at the…
A phase of matter is a familiar notion for inanimate physical matter. The nature of a phase of matter transcends the microscopic material properties. For example, materials in the liquid phase have certain common properties independent of…
Granular materials partake almost dramatically at times of the properties of solids and, under different circumstances, of some properties of gases. Here, within the mechanics of mass points, an elementary analysis, involving predominantly…
This article frames the relation between biology and physics by characterizing the former as a subdiscipline rather than a special case of the latter. To do this, we posit biological physics as the science of living matter in contrast to…
The term active matter describes diverse systems, spanning macroscopic (e.g. shoals of fish and flocks of birds) to microscopic scales (e.g. migrating cells, motile bacteria and gels formed through the interaction of nanoscale molecular…
We compare rigidity of materials in two phases, liquid and solid phases. As a measure of the rigidity, we employ the one characterizing how firmly the material is fixed by low density of pinning centers, such as impurities and rough…
Granulate physics has made considerable progress during the past decades in the understanding of static and dynamic properties of large ensembles of interacting macroscopic particles, including the modeling of phenomena like jamming,…
Normal condensed matter is merely of electromagnetic interaction. A novel state of strong-interaction matter is revisited.
We try to understand how particles acquire mass in general, and in particular, how they acquire mass in the standard model and beyond.
An elementary understanding of the relevant length, mass and energy scales at the molecular level can be used to explain the order of magnitude of material properties such as mass density, latent heat, surface tension, elastic moduli and…