The 500 phases of matter: New system successfully classifies symmetry-protected phases
Date:
December 21, 2012
Source:
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Forget solid, liquid, and gas: there are in fact more than 500 phases of matter. In a major paper in a recent issue of Science, Perimeter Faculty member Xiao-Gang Wen reveals a modern reclassification of all of them.
Condensed matter physics -- the branch of physics responsible for discovering and describing most of these phases -- has traditionally classified phases by the way their fundamental building blocks -- usually atoms -- are arranged. The key is something called symmetry./.../
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