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New State of Matter?


Liberator

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I am new here and this is the first thread I have created but I have a theory. I am starting to believe there is a new state of matter that is way below any temperature anybody has ever created or experienced. I believe there is a fifth state (states including gas, liquid, solid, and plasma) of matter caused by superfreezing matter and turning it into a pile of atoms. So much energy is transferred out of the matter that the bonds that hold the matter together fail. I do not have much evidence to back this theory up, but I am asking the members of this forum to help me with what I am stating.:confused:

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I dunno. Just a quick browse of a Google search shows that 100 pK (that would be [math]10^{-10}[/math] or 0.000 000 000 1K) is one of the coldest temperatures achieved.

 

See http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2000/isbn9512252147/

 

While it may not have been what the researcher was looking for, I would suspect that if they had found a new state of matter, it would be the main point of the abstract above. If not, you don't have a very big temperature range at all between 100pK and absolute zero for your "superfreezing"

 

oh, and there are already at least more than 5 states of matter (a 5th being a Bose-Einstein condensate, for example). And depending on how precise your definition of "state of matter" is, there could be more than 10 states: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_matter

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maybe you mean bose-einstein condensates? they were discovered a while ago.

That clearly disqualifies them as "a new state of matter that is way below any temperature anybody has ever created or experienced" :rolleyes:

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Hello Liberator, welcome to the forum.

I am new here and this is the first thread I have created but I have a theory.

Before anyone else picks you up on this, let me be the pedantic one. You don't have a theory; you have an idea, or speculation. A theory is a very well established concept, validated by many interlocking observations, experiments and realised predictions. I think you will agree your idea does not meet these criteria.

This is incidental to your main point, but it is important to bear in mind. A lot of crazy ideas are posted on the forum and most of them begin with the words 'I have a theory'. You will generally get much more positive reactions from everyone if you change the phrasing slightly to 'I have an idea and I'd like to know what you think'.

 

But to the meat of your idea. Physics is not my strong suite, but a couple of thoughts came to mind.

1. Temperature is a measure of motion of atoms/ions/molecules. I don't see how that is connected with the binding forces between them.

2. If anything, as we reduce relative motion between 'particles' it should enhance the binding forces, or rather be less disruptive.

3. We have, as Bignose pointed out, got very, very close to absolute zero. Do you truly expect something remarkable to happen at absolute zero? (Actually I wouldn't be surprised, but that's a philosophical position, not a scientific one.)

4. What do you see as the difference between a pile of atoms in one of the recognised states of matter and a pile of atoms in this new state your postulating?

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So much energy is transferred out of the matter that the bonds that hold the matter together fail.

 

The problem with this is that bonding is a result of removing energy from a system. Removing more energy can't result in a failure of the bond, because if it did I could make a perpetual motion machine out of it, and the entropy cops tend to find that objectionable.

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Cameron, bonds depend on a lot of factors and there are many different types of bonds and even intramolecular bonds that need to be taken into account. The removal of applied thermal or kinetic energy is only one facet.

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