Both hard and liquid: physicists first proved the dual nature of a strange state of matter

Scientists have received new important data on such a state of matter as a super -flowing solid. For the first time, physicists managed to successfully stir a strange substance called a supra flowing solid, which is simultaneously solid and liquid. Thus, scientists received the first direct evidence of the dual nature of the unusual state of matter. The study is published in Nature, writes Sciencealert. In focus. Technology has appeared its Telegram channel.

Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! Currently, physicists know about the existence of four states of matter: solid, liquid, gaseous and plasma. Scientists have long studied the exotic states of matter that are created during cooling of the substance to temperatures close to absolute zero, ie minus 273. 15 degrees Celsius. In such circumstances, matter begins to behave in a strange way.

Liquid or gas may experience more or less flow resistance that is measured by viscosity. Superior fluids have zero viscosity, because they do not have resistance and they flow freely. If you take the alkaline liquid and stir it in a cup, it will flow endlessly. At the same time, there is such an exotic state of matter as supra -flowing solids. Such a substance has the properties of both solid and high -infly fluid.

Some of the atoms of this substance flows without friction due to the grille of the rigid crystalline structure. Earlier, physicists have already observed these crystalline structures inside the alkaline solids. But it has never been possible to see how this substance flows. To a new study of scientists. Scientists have created a long -lived two -dimensional super -flowing solid by cooling individual atoms and molecules to almost absolute zero.

Then they were able to stir the upper solid and saw tiny whirlpools called quantified whirlwinds. They were proof of supra. As an explanation of their physics experiment, they give such an example. Imagine you stirly stir the coffee in a cup. The liquid will rotate around and in the middle of the cup a whirlpool will form, where the liquid is twisted as soon as possible. This is an example of a whirlwind in the usual fluid. Imagine that the bowl contains a high -flowing liquid.

As slowly stirring with a spoon it can be seen that the upper liquid does not rotate at all and remains fixed. If you stir the superficial liquid faster, it will occur not one large swirl in the center of the cup, but many tiny ears. These are quantified whirlwinds. According to physicists, such whirlwinds occur on the surface of the supra flowing fluid and make a regular pattern, similar to holes in cheese, but more perfectly located.

Physicists used magnetic fields to rotate the high -flowing solid and stir it to create quantified vortices. As a result, they received the first direct proof of the dual nature of such a state of matter as a high -flowing solid. Scientists believe that this achievement will create models of physical phenomena that occur only in an incredibly extreme environment. For example, in this way you can find out what happens inside neutron stars.

These are extremely dense residues of dead massive stars, and their diameter is only 12 to 20 km. Physicists believe that a change in the speed of rotation of neutron stars is caused by super -flowing vortices in their bowels. As focus has already written, physicists believe that observations of how exotic primary black holes disappear, it will be possible to identify unknown elementary particles. In this way, it opens the way to discover new physics and explain the nature of dark matter.