500 phases of matter

The 500 phases of matter: New system successfully classifies symmetry-protected phases

Date:

December 21, 2012

Source:

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Artist's impression of a string-net of light and electrons. String-nets are a theoretical kind of topologically ordered matter.

Credit: Xiao-Gang Wen/ Perimeter Institute

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./.../