London, UK (SPX) Aug 15, 2022 Scientists at Queen Mary University of London have made two...
Scientists at Queen Mary University of London have made two discoveries about the behaviour of 'supercritical matter' - matter at the critical point where the differences between liquids and gases seemingly disappear.
Previously, while the behaviour of matter at reasonably low temperature and pressure was well understood, the picture of matter at high temperature and pressure was blurred.
Above the critical point, differences between liquids and gases seemingly disappear, and the supercritical matter was thought to become hot, dense and homogeneous.
They also found that this inversion point is remarkably close in all systems studied, telling us that the supercritical matter is intriguingly simple and amenable to new understanding.
As well as fundamental understanding of the states of matter and the phase transition diagram, understanding supercritical matter has many practical applications; hydrogen and helium are supercritical in gas giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, and therefore govern their physical properties.
Kostya Trachenko, Professor of Physics at Queen Mary University of London, said: 'The asserted universality of the supercritical matter opens a way to a new physically transparent picture of matter at extreme conditions.
Methodology The main problem with understanding supercritical matter was that theories of gases, liquids and solids were not applicable.
Armed with earlier understanding of liquids at lower temperature and pressure, researchers used two parameters to describe the supercritical matter.
The scientists found that in terms of these two parameters, the matter at extreme conditions of high pressure and temperature becomes remarkably universal.
On the other hand, the same inversion point in all systems at extreme supercritical conditions tells us that the supercritical matter is intriguingly simple and amenable to new understanding.