Related papers: The elixir phase of chain molecule

Topological phases of matter are ubiquitous in crystals, but less is known about their existence in amorphous systems, that lack long-range order. In this perspective, we review the recent progress made on theoretically defining amorphous…

Quest for a new form of matter inside compact stars compels us to examine the thermodynamical properties of the phase transitions. We closely consider the first-order phase transitions and the phase equilibrium on the basis of the Gibbs…

Topological phases of matter are often understood and predicted with the help of crystal symmetries, although they don't rely on them to exist. In this chapter we review how topological phases have been recently shown to emerge in amorphous…

Pattern formation inside a liquid phase is a phenomenon involved in many different aspects of life on our planet. The droplet form of a liquid that evaporates can reveal patterns that depend on the chemistry of the droplet and the physical…

What are topological phases of matter? First, they are phases of matter at zero temperature. Second, they have a non-zero energy gap for the excitations above the ground state. Third, they are disordered liquids that seem have no feature.…

We present the results of analytic calculations and numerical simulations of the behaviour of a new class of chain molecules which we call thick polymers. The concept of the thickness of such a polymer, viewed as a tube, is encapsulated by…

Symmetry is central to how we classify phases of matter: solids break spatial translations, superfluids break particle-number conservation, and superconductors "break" gauge symmetry. Mixed anomalies involving higher-form symmetries,…

A newly predicted state of matter is a simple theoretical example of a phase that conducts electricity but is not smoothly connected to our conventional model of metals. A viewpoint on arXiv:1201.5998.

Based on an extended NJL model that treats baryons as clusters of quarks, we investigate the properties and microscopic structures of mixed phases for various types of first-order phase transitions in a unified manner, where the model…

For a long time, we thought that only symmetry breaking can give rise to different phases of matter. If there was no symmetry breaking, there would be no pattern and it would be featureless. But now we realize that, for quantum matter at…

Proteins form a very important class of polymers. In spite of major advances in the understanding of polymer science, the protein problem has remained largely unsolved. Here, we show that a polymer chain viewed as a tube not only captures…

We argue that protein native state structures reside in a novel "phase" of matter which confers on proteins their many amazing characteristics. This phase arises from the common features of all globular proteins and is characterized by a…

A framework is presented for understanding the common character of proteins. Proteins are linear chain molecules. However, the simple model of a polymer viewed as spheres tethered together does not account for many of the observed…

Polymorphism, the phenomenon that a species can exist in many discrete forms, is common in nature, such as hair colors in an animal species, flower colors in a tree species, and blood types in humans, etc. In materials science, it refers to…

In this perspective article, we discuss bacterial populations as a model system of active matter. It allows for the exploration and characterization of various phases of active matter and brings rich implications for both physics and…

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…

Glass is everywhere. We use and are surrounded by glass objects which make tangible the reality of glass as a distinct state of matter. Yet, glass as we know it is usually obtained by cooling a liquid sufficiently rapidly below its melting…

It is demonstrated by analyzing real examples that phase transitions in layered crystals occur like all other solid-state phase transitions by nucleation and crystal growth, but have a specific morphology. There the nucleation is epitaxial,…

Active matter is not only indispensable to our understanding of diverse biological processes, but also provides a fertile ground for discovering novel physics. Many emergent properties impossible for equilibrium systems have been…

Water is a ubiquitous liquid with unique physico-chemical properties, whose nature has shaped our planet and life as we know it. Water in restricted geometries has different properties than in bulk. Confinement can prevent low-temperature…