Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley think they may have discovered a brand-new hidden state of matter that lies between the liquid and solid phases of the transition.
The hidden state of matter between the liquid and solid states was thought to have been discovered by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Due to the intricate particle structure of this recently found state of matter, it is beyond the scope of simple explanation.
Scientists contend that amorphous solids, peculiar mixtures of solids and liquids, can be used to explain this state. The most typical amorphous solid is glass. Glass may appear to be a perfect solid, but when scientists look at it closely, they can see that its complex arrangement of particles is actually more like a frozen, free-falling liquid.
As all matter in our surroundings is either composed of solid, liquid, or gas, each of these states has its unique characteristics and atomic arrangement.
A state of transition is when one of these states, such as a solid melting into a liquid or a liquid evaporating into a gas, transitions into another. However, matter is much more complex than just these three fundamental states.
A fresh concealed state of matter?
Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, Dimitrios Fraggedakis, Muhammad Hasyim, and Kranthi Mandadapu claim that there is a type of rearrangement that exists between the liquid and solid states.
They postulate that supercooled liquids and solids exhibit behavior where the static particles remain agitated and “twitch” in situ.
Researchers Fraggedakis, Hasyim, and Mandadapu hypothesized that this transition, which involves a unique activity of particles sitting between their regular liquid and supercooled phases, may not be as clean as it seems using calculation, modeling, and the results of previous research.
“Our theory explains why the behavior of supercooled liquids around that temperature is reminiscent of solids even though their structure is identical to that of the liquid,” says Mandadapu. “Our theory predicts the onset temperature measured in model systems.”
“The starting temperature for glassy dynamics is analogous to the melting point at which a supercooled liquid’melts’ into a liquid. For all supercooled liquids or glassy systems, this should be pertinent.
Although there is virtually no atom flow in a supercooled liquid, the particles are constantly altering their configurations while immobile, leading to motions known as excitations. The researchers analyzed what happens as the temperature changes by treating these excitations in a 2D supercooled liquid as flaws in a crystalline solid.
The group thinks their model may be developed to explain how the transition functions in three dimensions as well and provide a theoretical foundation for next experimental research.
The goal, according to Mandadapu, is to comprehend at the microscopic level what distinguishes a supercooled liquid from a high temperature liquid.
Examining the reasons behind why these supercooled liquids exhibit radically different behavior from the known ordinary liquids is fascinating from a basic science perspective.
