Who invented plasma state of matter

Any further electrons need to go into a progressively higher and higher energy state; no two electrons can have the same exact quantum configuration in the same physical system. The energy levels and electron wavefunctions that correspond to different states within a hydrogen But this is not true for bosons. You can place as many bosons in the ground-state configuration as you like, with no restrictions.

If you create the right physical conditions — such as cooling a system of bosons and confining them to the same physical location — there is no limit to the number of bosons that you can fit into that lowest-energy state. When you reach this configuration, of many bosons all in the same, lowest-energy quantum state, you've achieved the fifth state of matter: a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Helium, an atom made of two protons, two neutrons, and four electrons, is a stable atom made of an even number of fermions, and therefore behaves as a boson. At low enough temperatures, it becomes a superfluid: a fluid with zero viscosity and no friction between itself or any container that it interacts with.

These properties are a consequence of Bose-Einstein condensation. While helium was the first boson to achieve this fifth state of matter, it has since been reproduced for gases, molecules, quasi-particles and even photons. It remains an active area of research today. A Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium atoms before L , during middle and after R the The graphic shows three-dimensional successive snap shots in time in which the atoms condensed from less dense red, yellow and green areas into very dense blue to white areas.

Fermions, on the other hand, cannot all be in the same quantum state. White dwarf stars and neutron stars don't collapse because of the Pauli Exclusion Principle; electrons in adjacent atoms in white dwarfs or neutrons that border one another in neutron stars cannot fully collapse under their own gravity, because of the quantum pressure provided by the Pauli Exclusion Principle. The same principle that's responsible for atomic structure keeps these dense configurations of matter from collapsing down to black holes; two fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state.

So how, then, can you achieve the sixth state of matter: a Fermionic condensate? Believe it or not, the story of Fermionic condensates goes all the way back to the s, with an incredible discovery by the Nobel-winning physicist Leon Cooper.

The term you'll want to remember is named after him: Cooper pairs. In a very low temperature conductor, negatively charged electrons will slightly change the This leads to the effect of them pairing up to form Cooper pairs, the first form of a fermionic condensate ever discovered.

At low temperatures, every particle tends towards its lowest-energy, ground-state configuration. If you take a conducting metal and lower the temperature sufficiently, two electrons of opposite spins will pair together; this tiny attraction will cause electrons to pair up as a less energetic, more stable configuration than to have all your electrons moving individually.

Fermionic condensates require lower temperatures than Bose-Einstein condensates do, but they also behave as a superfluid. In , helium-3 with one fewer neutron than standard helium was shown to become a superfluid at temperatures below 2. In , physicist Deborah Jin's laboratory created the first atomic-based Fermionic condensate, leveraging a strong magnetic field along with ultra-cold temperatures to coax the atoms into this sought-after state.

While solids, liquids and gases may be the most common states of matter, at extremely low In addition to the three standard states of matter — solid, liquid, and gas — there's a higher-energy state of an ionized plasma, arising wherever atoms and molecules have too few electrons to be electrically neutral.

However, at ultra-low temperatures, the two fundamental classes of particles, bosons and fermions, can each condense together in their own particular fashion, creating Bose-Einstein or Fermionic condensates, respectively: the fifth and sixth states of matter. Plasma, therefore, has properties quite unlike those of solids, liquids, or gases and is considered a distinct state of matter. Like a gas, plasma does not have a definite shape or a definite volume unless enclosed in a container.

But unlike gas, under the influence of a magnetic field, it may form structures such as filaments, beams and double layers. It is precisely for this reason that plasma is used in the construction of electronics, such as plasma TVs and neon signs. Sir J. Thomson, a British physicist, identified the nature of the matter in , thanks to his discovery of electrons and numerous experiments using cathode ray tubes. As already mentioned, plasmas are by far the most common phase of matter in the universe.

Plasma is a state of matter that is often thought of as a subset of gases, but the two states behave very differently. Like gases, plasmas have no fixed shape or volume, and are less dense than solids or liquids. But unlike ordinary gases , plasmas are made up of atoms in which some or all of the electrons have been stripped away and positively charged nuclei, called ions, roam freely. That is, the number of negatively charged electrons equals the number of positively charged protons.

Atoms or molecules can acquire a positive or negative electrical charge when they gain or lose electrons. This process is called ionization. Plasma makes up the sun and stars, and it is the most common state of matter in the universe as a whole. Blood plasma, by the way, is something completely different.

It is the liquid portion of blood. It is 92 percent water and constitutes 55 percent of blood volume, according to the American Red Cross. A typical gas, such as nitrogen or hydrogen sulfide, is made of molecules that have a net charge of zero, giving the gas volume as a whole a net charge of zero.

Plasmas, being made of charged particles, may have a net charge of zero over their whole volume but not at the level of individual particles. That means the electrostatic forces between the particles in the plasma become significant, as well as the effect of magnetic fields.

Being made of charged particles, plasmas can do things gases cannot, like conduct electricity.