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Superconductor Research Points To New Phase of Matter

Posted by Soulskill on from the older-phases-are-now-passe dept.

unil_1005 writes "Scientists have found the strongest evidence yet that a puzzling gap in the electronic structures of some high-temperature superconductors could indicate a new phase of matter. Understanding this 'pseudogap' has been a 20-year quest for researchers who are trying to control and improve these breakthrough materials, with the ultimate goal of finding superconductors that operate at room temperature. 'Our findings point to management and control of this other phase as the correct path toward optimizing these novel superconductors for energy applications, as well as searching for new superconductors,' said Zhi-Xun Shen of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science."

59 comments

  1. Boring. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    It don't matter to me.

    1. Re:Boring. by cranil · · Score: 0

      so what's the point of replying to the article?

    2. Re:Boring. by stms · · Score: 1

      You obviously have no idea what the implications of a finding a room temperature super-conductor are they're actually very exciting and at the very lest not boring. It would push most of our technology forward at least 20 years if we can find a way to mass produce one. Since you obviously use technology it defiantly does matter to you.

    3. Re:Boring. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It don't matter to me.

      ah i see wat you did there. some reason people dont apriciate puns on slashdot

    4. Re:Boring. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's not gas whooshing over your head.

    5. Re:Boring. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1, Funny

      So folks like you get a WHOOSH! through your brain?

      (Think about it again, slowly this time)

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    6. Re:Boring. by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      Apriciate Jam ROCKS!

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    7. Re:Boring. by fotoflojoe · · Score: 2

      Your post made me laugh. The replies made me sad, knowing that Sheldon Cooper is alive and well.

    8. Re:Boring. by CnlPepper · · Score: 2

      We don't appreciate it because it was lame.

  2. 4th phase discovered in 1987... by LordStormes · · Score: 0

    There's solid, liquid, gas, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jell-O . This phase also includes such phenomena as peanut butter and jelly (though not together in a sandwich; the bread acts as a catalyst that solidifies the compounds).

    1. Re:4th phase discovered in 1987... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This phase also includes such phenomena as peanut butter and jelly (though not together in a sandwich; the bread acts as a catalyst that solidifies the compounds).

      Then you're doing it wrong; in a properly built peanut butter and jelly sandwich the bread merely acts as containment for the gooey deliciousness inside.

  3. Fueled by the power of your yellow sun. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cosbynite, my only weakness.

    1. Re:Fueled by the power of your yellow sun. by lysdexia · · Score: 1

      It would be hard to win a thread with more grace.
      /me doffs hat

  4. What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by VMaN · · Score: 2

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose%E2%80%93Einstein_condensate

    1. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by MozeeToby · · Score: 1

      There are lots and lots of phases of matter, the 3 (or maybe 4 depending on your teacher) that you learned about in elementary science classes are just the most common.

    2. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      just to name the ones i've heard of (through being nothing more than someone who pays attention but without any real interest)

      solid
      liquid crystal (yes like in watch displays)
      liquid
      gas
      plasma

      aside from the liquid crystal (it's a different phase or some such cos it's not the space between the molecules but rather the alignment of the molecules which determine if it's currently solid or liquid) i always liked how science has basically said the world is made of four things; earth, water, air and fire...

      oh and as for Bose Einstein Condensate i would think it's still a liquid, be it one with zero friction.

      right, enough ramblings.

    3. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by blueg3 · · Score: 1

      A zero-friction liquid is a superfluid, not a Bose-Einstein condensate. Both superfluids and BEC are distinct phases of matter, though. Simply sharing some properties with another phase is insufficient -- otherwise liquid and gas wouldn't be distinct phases.

    4. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by hedwards · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wouldn't that make a zero-friction liquid, superfluous?

    5. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by tangelogee · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't that make a zero-friction liquid, superfluous?

      badump-ch!

    6. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by Speare · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't that make a zero-friction liquid, superfluous?

      Don't mean to rayn on your parade, but I didn't know if you intended that as a physics pun or not. "Fluous" sounds like "fluidity," the reciprocal of viscosity; super-fluidity is sub-viscosity. While it means something else in this case, "fluous" does come from the French fluere, to flow. So, was it on pour poise?

      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
    7. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by slick7 · · Score: 1

      Would a magnetic jelly be apropos? With some aether butter on a sesame seed bun?

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
    8. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      woosh again

    9. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're wooshing, but apart from that fluere doesn't sound particularly french, to me. Couler is to flow, but also to sink. Fluere seems to be to be latin, more likely.

    10. Re:What about Bose Einstein Condensate? by Phoghat · · Score: 1

      No, because Andy Granatelli's STP would incorporate it as an ingredient

      --
      Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
  5. Set Phasers... by earls · · Score: 0

    ...to superconduct!

  6. 4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I thought plasma, bose-einsten condensate and quark-gluon plasmas were all recognised as seperate states of matter?

    1. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by bigsexyjoe · · Score: 1

      That's why no one described it as the "4th" phase of matter. Just a new phase.

      --
      Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
    2. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by blueg3 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Plasma is the fourth "common" phase of matter.

      Bose-Einstein condensates and other novel phase are also phases, but aren't exhibited in all materials.

      For that matter, most solids, particularly crystalline solids, have many different phases that correspond to different crystalline structures.

      Also, "liquid" and "gas" aren't always distinct phases.

    3. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by lysdexia · · Score: 1

      On this pathetic plane, perhaps. Others may have found different metaphors.

    4. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by Diss+Champ · · Score: 1

      There are also liquid crystal phases. Basically, ordered liquids.

    5. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you list some examples where liquid and gas aren't distinct phases? Real question. I'd be interested in reading up on it. I thought one was compressible, while the other isn't. None distinct ones should have interesting properties.

    6. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by Biff+Stu · · Score: 2

      I believe that the GP is referring to supercritical fluids.

    7. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The extremely dense "atmosphere" of a gas giant is like this, IIRC.

    8. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      These are supercritical fluids. If i'm not mistaken, oxygen is one at room temperature. A typical gas to liquid phase transition involves a discontinuity in the density of the fluid with rising pressure and constant temperature; supercritical fluids fail to exhibit this behavior for all pressures at a temperature above the critical point. More interesting, however, is what happens right around the critical point. Specifically, the free energy difference between the gas and liquid phases (just below the critical point) tend towards zero as one approaches this pressure/temperature combination. This results in enormous swings in density within the material for no real reason. That is, the change in density with respect to pressure approaches infinity (or the change in density with respect to volume approaches zero).

    9. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by blueg3 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, it took me a while to notice this response.

      I'm forgetting a lot of my thermodynamics terminology, but the type of thermodynamic change between a solid phase and either of the fluid phases is different than the thermodynamic change between the two fluid phases (liquid and gas). You can intuitively see this, since the solid phase (for crystalline things) has a symmetry change and a fundamental change in how the system is ordered. Liquid and gas phases are very similar, except that particles are a lot closer together in liquid.

      Anyway, if you look at a phase diagram (a map of phases at different temperatures and pressures), the point where all three phases coexist is the triple point. There's a second point at high temperature and pressure called the "critical point". It's the end of the line that separates the liquid and gas phases. Above the critical point, the liquid and gas phases are the same. In fact, you can start with a liquid, raise the temperature and pressure so that you're past the critical point, lower the pressure, and then lower the temperature and pressure until you end up with a gas, never having crossed a phase transition.

      The actual thermodynamics is tricky to understand but very entertaining.

      Yes, supercritical fluids.

    10. Re:4th? How about 6th? Or 7th? by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 1

      Off the top of my head:
      Solid
      Liquid
      Critical state
      Supercritical matter
      Gas
      Plasma
      Liquid crystal
      Glass
      Bose-Einstein condensate
      Fermionic condensate
      Rydberg molecule
      Superfluid
      Quark-Gluon plasma

      Probably a few others. And now pseudogap.

      --
      Not a sentence!
  7. That's because... by earls · · Score: 4, Funny

    They're the only phases that matter.

    1. Re:That's because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized."
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)

      "A Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter of a dilute gas of weakly interacting bosons confined in an external potential and cooled to temperatures very near absolute zero (0 K or 273.15 C[1])."
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose-Einstein_condensate

    2. Re:That's because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm almost positive that he was making a (bad) joke not asking for a citation.

    3. Re:That's because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And hey, this new thing? It's only a phase.

    4. Re:That's because... by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      That's the phase that pays!

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  8. How large can the plumes get? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would have been nice to know how many electrons are involved.

    The spacing of the plumes would perhaps indicate some sort of resonance.

  9. What? Another one? by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 1

    Aren't there, like, 14 now?

    --

    Technoli
  10. There's only one phase of matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And its name is JESUS

    1. Re:There's only one phase of matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And its name is JESUS

      There is only one phase of matter and its name is...

      CHUCK NORRIS

  11. Woosh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's times like these that Slashdot's no delete/edit policy on posts really sticks you in the ass, no?

    1. Re:Woosh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone should probe into this matter.

  12. Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, what is with slashdot today! It's like woosh city.

    1. Re:Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away? by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Wow, thanks for that explanation through demonstration.

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  13. Stanford Institute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cheap looking pages and the pictures taken are likely any dressed up event to give an nice feeling of the area, perhaps to just cover the amount of not too great events that occur on around there.

    I could read comments on but it comes part it's not worth it, i'd say same about anything else like that of SCO and Microsoft to others, it's media streams and comerializement of own name within the persons who own internet connection.

    Indeed there is some type of an thing at some comments "subject" about thing on towards the book written information, it's still that has the person itself came aware of "liquid crystal phases" to give an informative thing from it, otherwise it's other person published idea on and not fully confirmed either and should not much be used too.

    1. Re:Stanford Institute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is with all these gibberish posts lately? Come on, this isn't a common blog - post the gibberish somewhere else.

  14. My prediction... by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 1

    We're going to spend all this time and effort to create room temperature super conductors only to have a bunch of three-legged two-headed aliens develop a bacteria to eat it and make our cities fall.

    --
    I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
  15. This... by mpdolan37 · · Score: 2

    does not phase me.

    --
    Facts are useless, they can be used to prove anything.
    1. Re:This... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because your molecular phase inverter is improperly aligned.

  16. Co2 in gans state of matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Solid state of matter occurs when molecules are bound to each other due to environmental changes in temperature and/or pressure. When molecules due to their own gravity and magnetic fields come together and form a solid, independent of environmental conditions (such as in a vacuum), that is called Gans state (gas in nano state). For experiment details of co2 in Gans state, check this link: keshefoundation.com/powercells/CO2_paper.pdf

  17. New phase of matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will they discover FLUBBER?