Timeline of states of matter and phase transitions
Encyclopedia
Timeline of states of matter and phase transitions
- 1895 – Pierre CuriePierre CuriePierre Curie was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity and radioactivity, and Nobel laureate. He was the son of Dr. Eugène Curie and Sophie-Claire Depouilly Curie ...
discovers that induced magnetization is proportional to magnetic fieldMagnetic fieldA magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
strength - 1911 – Heike Kamerlingh OnnesHeike Kamerlingh OnnesHeike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate. He pioneered refrigeration techniques, and he explored how materials behaved when cooled to nearly absolute zero. He was the first to liquify helium...
discloses his research on superconductivitySuperconductivitySuperconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum... - 1912 – Peter DebyePeter DebyePeter Joseph William Debye FRS was a Dutch physicist and physical chemist, and Nobel laureate in Chemistry.-Early life:...
derives the T-cubed law for the low temperature heat capacity of a nonmetallic solid - 1925 – Ernst IsingErnst IsingErnst Ising was a German physicist, who is best remembered for the development of the Ising model. He was a professor of physics at Bradley University until his retirement in 1976.-Life:Ernst Ising was born in Cologne in 1900...
presents the solution to the one-dimensional Ising modelIsing modelThe Ising model is a mathematical model of ferromagnetism in statistical mechanics. The model consists of discrete variables called spins that can be in one of two states . The spins are arranged in a graph , and each spin interacts with its nearest neighbors... - 1928 – Felix BlochFelix BlochFelix Bloch was a Swiss physicist, working mainly in the U.S.-Life and work:Bloch was born in Zürich, Switzerland to Jewish parents Gustav and Agnes Bloch. He was educated there and at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, also in Zürich. Initially studying engineering he soon changed to physics...
applies quantum mechanics to electrons in crystal latticesElectronic band structureIn solid-state physics, the electronic band structure of a solid describes those ranges of energy an electron is "forbidden" or "allowed" to have. Band structure derives from the diffraction of the quantum mechanical electron waves in a periodic crystal lattice with a specific crystal system and...
, establishing the quantum theory of solids - 1929 – Paul Adrien Maurice DiracPaul DiracPaul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM, FRS was an English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics...
and Werner Karl Heisenberg develop the quantum theory of ferromagnetismFerromagnetismFerromagnetism is the basic mechanism by which certain materials form permanent magnets, or are attracted to magnets. In physics, several different types of magnetism are distinguished... - 1932 – Louis Eugène Félix Neel discovers antiferromagnetismAntiferromagnetismIn materials that exhibit antiferromagnetism, the magnetic moments of atoms or molecules, usuallyrelated to the spins of electrons, align in a regular pattern with neighboring spins pointing in opposite directions. This is, like ferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism, a manifestation of ordered magnetism...
- 1933 – Walter Meissner and Robert OchsenfeldRobert OchsenfeldRobert Ochsenfeld was a German physicist born on May 18, 1901 in Hilchenbach . In 1933 he discovered with Walter Meissner the Meißner-Ochsenfeld effect.He died on December 5, 1993 in Hilchenbach....
discover perfect superconducting diamagnetismDiamagnetismDiamagnetism is the property of an object which causes it to create a magnetic field in opposition to an externally applied magnetic field, thus causing a repulsive effect. Specifically, an external magnetic field alters the orbital velocity of electrons around their nuclei, thus changing the... - 1933–1937 – Lev Davidovich Landau develops the Landau theoryLandau theoryLandau theory in physics was introduced by Lev Landau in an attempt to formulate a general theory of second-order phase transitions. He was motivated to suggest that the free energy of any system should obey two conditions: that the free energy is analytic, and that it obeys the symmetry of the...
of phase transitionPhase transitionA phase transition is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase or state of matter to another.A phase of a thermodynamic system and the states of matter have uniform physical properties....
s - 1937 – Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa and John Frank Allen discover superfluidSuperfluidSuperfluidity is a state of matter in which the matter behaves like a fluid without viscosity and with extremely high thermal conductivity. The substance, which appears to be a normal liquid, will flow without friction past any surface, which allows it to continue to circulate over obstructions and...
ity - 1941 – Lev Davidovich Landau explains superfluidSuperfluidSuperfluidity is a state of matter in which the matter behaves like a fluid without viscosity and with extremely high thermal conductivity. The substance, which appears to be a normal liquid, will flow without friction past any surface, which allows it to continue to circulate over obstructions and...
ity - 1942 – Hannes AlfvenHannes AlfvénHannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics . He described the class of MHD waves now known as Alfvén waves...
predicts magnetohydrodynamicMagnetohydrodynamicsMagnetohydrodynamics is an academic discipline which studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such fluids include plasmas, liquid metals, and salt water or electrolytes...
waves in plasmas - 1944 – Lars OnsagerLars OnsagerLars Onsager was a Norwegian-born American physical chemist and theoretical physicist, winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.He held the Gibbs Professorship of Theoretical Chemistry at Yale University....
publishes the exact solution to the two-dimensional Ising model - 1957 – John BardeenJohn BardeenJohn Bardeen was an American physicist and electrical engineer, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for a...
, Leon CooperLeon CooperLeon N Cooper is an American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate, who with John Bardeen and John Robert Schrieffer, developed the BCS theory of superconductivity...
, and Robert Schrieffer develop the BCS theoryBCS theoryBCS theory — proposed by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer in 1957 — is the first microscopic theory of superconductivity since its discovery in 1911. The theory describes superconductivity as a microscopic effect caused by a "condensation" of pairs of electrons into a boson-like state...
of superconductivity - End of the 50s – Lev Davidovich Landau develops the theory of Fermi liquidFermi liquidFermi liquid theory is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. The interaction between the particles of the many-body system does not need to be small...
- 1959 – Philip Warren AndersonPhilip Warren AndersonPhilip Warren Anderson is an American physicist and Nobel laureate. Anderson has made contributions to the theories of localization, antiferromagnetism and high-temperature superconductivity.- Biography :...
predicts localizationAnderson localizationIn condensed matter physics, Anderson localization, also known as strong localization, is the absence of diffusion of waves in a disordered medium. This phenomenon is named after the American physicist P. W...
in disordered systems - 1972 – Douglas Osheroff, Robert C. RichardsonRobert Coleman RichardsonRobert Coleman Richardson is an American experimental physicist whose area of research includes sub-millikelvin temperature studies of helium-3...
, and David LeeDavid Lee (physicist)David Morris Lee is an American physicist who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics with Robert C. Richardson and Douglas Osheroff "for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3"-Personal life:...
discover that helium-3 can become a superfluidSuperfluidSuperfluidity is a state of matter in which the matter behaves like a fluid without viscosity and with extremely high thermal conductivity. The substance, which appears to be a normal liquid, will flow without friction past any surface, which allows it to continue to circulate over obstructions and... - 1974 – Kenneth G. WilsonKenneth G. WilsonKenneth Geddes Wilson is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner.As an undergraduate at Harvard, he was a Putnam Fellow. He earned his PhD from Caltech in 1961, studying under Murray Gell-Mann....
develops the renormalization group technique for treating phase transitions - 1980 – Klaus von KlitzingKlaus von KlitzingKlaus von Klitzing is a German physicist known for discovery of the integer quantum Hall Effect, for which he was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics....
discovers the quantum Hall effect - 1982 – Horst L. Stoermer and Daniel C. TsuiDaniel C. TsuiDaniel Chee Tsui is a Chinese-born American physicist whose areas of research included electrical properties of thin films and microstructures of semiconductors and solid-state physics...
discover the fractional quantum Hall effectFractional quantum Hall effectThe fractional quantum Hall effect is a physical phenomenon in which the Hall conductance of 2D electrons shows precisely quantised plateaus at fractional values of e^2/h. It is a property of a collective state in which electrons bind magnetic flux lines to make new quasiparticles, and excitations... - 1983 – Robert B. LaughlinRobert B. LaughlinRobert Betts Laughlin is a professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. Along with Horst L. Störmer of Columbia University and Daniel C. Tsui of Princeton University, he was awarded a share of the 1998 Nobel Prize in physics for their explanation of the fractional quantum Hall...
explains the fractional quantum Hall effectFractional quantum Hall effectThe fractional quantum Hall effect is a physical phenomenon in which the Hall conductance of 2D electrons shows precisely quantised plateaus at fractional values of e^2/h. It is a property of a collective state in which electrons bind magnetic flux lines to make new quasiparticles, and excitations... - 1987 – Karl Alexander MüllerKarl Alexander MüllerKarl Alexander Müller is a Swiss physicist and Nobel laureate. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1987 with Johannes Georg Bednorz for their work in superconductivity in ceramic materials.-Biography:...
and Georg Bednorz discover high critical temperature ceramic superconductors