Phases of Matter

Abstract

The objective of statistical physics is to derive the macroscopic (thermodynamic) properties of matter from the laws of mechanics that govern the motion of its microscopic constituents. Note that in this context microscopic may have different meanings. Indeed, although it is common to consider that matter is made of atoms or molecules (something known as the atomic description atomic description), this is not the only possible description. For instance, one might consider from the outset that matter is made of electrons and nuclei (subatomic description subatomic description) that interact through Coulomb forces. Clearly, the derivation of the thermodynamic properties of matter is much more involved when, instead of the atomic description, one uses the subatomic one. The reason is that, in this case, one should analyze successively how electrons and nuclei form atoms, how these atoms constitute molecules, and, finally, how the macroscopic properties of matter may be derived from the molecular description. As a matter of fact, the subject of going from the subatomic description to the atomic one does not truly belong to the realm of statistical physics (rather it belongs to atomic and molecular physics) which usually takes as starting point the atomic and molecular interactions.

There is yet a third description in the thermodynamic study of matter (supramolecular or mesoscopic description), which has sometimes been used to study systems having such a complex molecular architecture that it is very difficult to derive the intermolecular interactions from the atomic interactions. The properties of mesoscopic systems are nevertheless similar to those of atomic systems, but they differ in the relevant length scales: the angstrom in atomic systems (microscopic) and the micron in the supramolecular ones (mesoscopic). In the last few years, there has been a spectacular development of research in mesoscopic systems in what is called soft condensed matter (liquid crystals, colloidal dispersions, polymers, etc.), some examples of which are considered later in this chapter.

Due to the existence of an interaction potential between the constituents of a nonideal system, the latter may be found in different structures or phases whose relative stability depends on the thermodynamic state, such as the pressure and the temperature.When these variables are changed, a phase transition may occur in which the structure of the system changes. These transitions will be studied in Chap. 9. In the present chapter a summary is provided of some common structures of matter.