Is it true that there's a 7th phase of matter

Question

Is it true that there's a 7th phase of matter

Answer 1

Are you sure you mean 'phase' of matter? Phases are sometimes confused with states of matter, but there are significant differences. States of matter refers to the differences between gases, liquids, solids, plasma, etc. So the answer to your question is yes if you are asking about how many states of matter exist. A state of matter is a class of materials, usually solid, liquid, and gas. Ionized Plasma, Quark-gluon plasma, Bose-Einstein condensate and fermionic condensate are other less commonly known states of matter. The 7th state of matter is fermionic condensate...

Hope this helps!!!

Answer 2

Yup, officially there are seven.  We usually think of the normal ones, solid, liquid, gas, but, there are several more I will list below:

4--Plasma

5--Supersolid

6--Bose-Einstein Condensate

7--Superfluid

Some scientists argue about the validity of super solids/liquids, but they are very different from their non-super counterparts.  Many accept these states, including myself.  

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Hmmm.. it should be noted that a superfluid is either a Bose-Einstein condensate (for bosons) OR a fermionic condensate (for fermions), so we shouldn't list superfluid as a separate state of mater.

Also, what you're after are "states" of matter. State is a broad categorization based on physical properties (gases expand to fill their container, for example) whereas a phase is a region within which the free energy of a substance is analytic - a phase transition is a point of non-analyticity.

In any case, I looked up "7 states of matter" and a bunch of sites turned up listing solid, liquid, gas, plasma, Bose-Einstein Condensate, "beam", and "thought wave". I personally do not believe that "beam" and "thought wave" are actual states of matter recognized by physicists. It seems rather meta-physical to me. Unfortunately, it seems that this idea has spread afar.

Anyways, here's my list of states of matter:

* Bose-Einstein condensate

* Fermionic condensate

* Supersolid - may or may not exist

* Solid

* Liquid

* Gas

(Note that "supercritical fluid" is not a state of matter - its properties are flexible depending on temperature and pressure and fall between those of liquid and gas. It is, however, very useful. It is not the same as "supefluid".)

* Plasma (above the Fermi boiling point of valence electrons)

* Electron-degenerate matter, found within white dwarfs

* Neutron-degenerate matter, found within neutron stars

* Quark-degenerate matter may or may not exist in "quark stars". The nature of such stars has not been ascertained.

* Quark-gluon plasma is a soup of unbound quarks and gluons. It exists due to the property "asymptotic freedom" of the strong interaction.

* Black holes. The nature of this matter is also uncertain, and I may not be justified in calling it a state, I'm not sure. It is exceptionally dense (infinitely dense according to GR, but quantum mechanics is not factored into this formulation) and has maximal entropy.