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Re: [Phys-l] States of matter?



Regarding:

And what about quasi-crystals?

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. Also ordinary type I and type II superconductors may ought to be considered as two different kinds of phases. High T_c superconductors may ought to be considered as distinct phases from the other kinds involving BCS superconductivity. Even each different crystalline structure of ordinary crystalline solids is certainly a separate kind of phase in its own right.

How a lot of this categorization process winds up depends on how much the one doing the categorizing is a lumper or a splitter.

David Bowman