Physicists confirm the existence of a new state of matter

Until now, atoms of physical matter were understood to exist only in one of three states: solid, liquid, or gaseous. But an international team of physicists, led by the University of Edinburgh, discovered that some elements can, when subjected to extreme conditions, take on the properties of solid and liquid states.

The application of high pressures and temperatures to potassium creates a state in which most of the element's atoms form a solid, retired structure. However, the structure also contains a second set of potassium atoms that are in a fluid arrangement.

"Potassium is one of the simplest metals we know, but if you squeeze it, it forms very complicated structures," said Dr. Andreas Hermann of the University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy and lead author of the study.



Until now, it was unclear whether these structures represented a distinct state of matter - called the melting state of the chain - or existed as stages of transition between two distinct states.

Hermann and colleagues used powerful computer simulations to study the existence of the new state. The simulation of how 20,000 potassium atoms behave under extreme conditions revealed that the structures formed represent the steady state of melting the chain.




"Applying pressure to the atoms leads to the formation of two interconnected solid lattice structures. The chemical interactions between atoms in a network are strong, meaning that they remain in a solid form when the structure is heated, while the other atoms merge in a liquid state, "the researchers said.

"It is believed that more than half a dozen elements - including sodium and bismuth - are capable of existing in the newly discovered state."