Dev.SN ♥ developers
Sections
Dev.SN
from the (sigh)-still-no-Puerto-Ricoton dept.
amblivious writes:
"Researchers investigating the creation of biexcitons noticed an unexpected drop in energy when creating multiple biexcitons in gallium arsenide, leading to the discovery of a new state of matter; the dropleton. Excitons are quasi-particles created when a photon knocks an electron loose from a material, causing an electron hole. If the forces of other charges nearby keep the electron close enough to the hole a state known as an exciton forms where the combined electron and hole act together as though they are a single particle. Biexcitons consist of two of these quasi-particles and collectively behave like a molecule. In this discovery several excitons are behaving together in a 'quantum fog' and behave like a droplet, hence the name.
See the article in Nature for more information."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @11:32AM
I suppose it depends on how one defines a state of matter.
"an unexpected drop in energy when creating multiple biexcitons in gallium arsenide"
I'm guessing what they mean is that, within a phase the relationship between adding or subtracting heat and 'temperature' is approximately continuous. However, across phases, there is a discontinuity. So here by 'drop in energy' they are probably referring to a similar discontinuity.