

Unexpected data from the Large Hadron Collider suggest a new type of matter - cclark20
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/lead-proton-collisions-at-large-hadron-collider-yield-surprising-results-1127.html

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danking00
Even though the MIT News Office subtitled the article with the phrase "new
type of matter," could we please change the HN title to "new phase of matter"?

Perhaps this is an Americanism, but a "new type of matter" suggests to me that
we've found a new family of fundamental particles besides the quarks, the
leptons, and the gauge bosons.

What the article talks about is quite clearly a phase of matter called "color-
glass condensate".

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gulbrandr
Please post the URL of the _original_ article:
[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/lead-proton-collisions-
at...](http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/lead-proton-collisions-at-large-
hadron-collider-yield-surprising-results-1127.html)

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stephengillie
So this _color-glass condensate_ is a very-high-energy type of matter. It goes
on the list with:

    
    
      Solid
      Liquid
      Gas
      Plasma
      Glass
      Crystal
      Superfluid
      Supersolid
      Superglass
      Dark

~~~
chimeracoder
Since when is glass (I assume we mean soda-lime glass) a separate phase of
matter?

My impression was that it was a solid, and that the myth that it's a highly
viscous liquid was based off of incorrect analysis of stained glass windows,
etc. that were more likely explained by imperfections in the production
process.

~~~
ajross
"Phases" are poorly defined. They exist wherever there's a statistical
mechanics reason to define them, and they make sense only within the limits of
the approximations on which they are based. Glass is "solid" to a mechanical
engineer (in most regimes), but it's not a crystal and doesn't behave like one
to a solid state physicist. Likewise "plasma" is a great tool to describe a
fluorescent light bulb or lightning bolt, but not so much a white dwarf. Even
stuff you think you understand, like "liquid and gas are clearly different"
turns out to be wrong (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercritical_fluid>).

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gliese1337
Here's the pre-print: <http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1210.5482>

