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Re: [Phys-l] States of matter?

Regarding JD's question:

On 10/13/2011 08:04 AM, David Bowman wrote:
Not to mention spin glasses, nuclear matter and quark matter.
The electron-degenerate carbon/oxygen material in white
dwarfs probably ought to be considered as its own distinct
phase.

Now those are some fun examples. What about a neutron star?
Or do you just consider that a really high-mass nucleus?

Actually, a neutron star is precisely what I meant by 'nuclear matter', i.e the macroscopic bulk material composed of mostly neutrons with some protons and electrons (& virtual pions & etas). I didn't consider individual nuclei since they are not macroscopic bulk matter, & I thought we were supposedly discussing macroscopic bulk samples of matter in the thermodynamic limit. But is it true that large nuclei have enough internal degrees of freedom to have various thermodynamic properties defined--even if their values have relative fluctuations that are fairly high due to the relatively small number of particles present.

One more thing. If we are enumerating phases we probably ought to mention visco-elastic materials, various polymeric phases, & other rheologically plastic materials (with a complicated spectrum of relaxation times) as well.

David Bowman