a basic article on exotic matter (which you can understand)

 

With Exotic matter could possibly

·       create traversable wormholes (know what are wormholes)

·       time travel

·       inter-space travel to far distances

seems interesting, right? 🙂

Here’s a summary of what you will learn

What is exotic matter and negative mass-a special kind of matter with negative mass, it repels normal matter, when brought close

Can we create it-not exactly, but scientists have created a state of matter with similar properties at the international space station

This state of matter is called bose-einstein condensate

It is made by cooling normal matter to very low temperatures

Scientists used 2 techniques to achieve this-LASERs and evaporative cooling

Exotic matter vs dark matter- although both these forms of matter are highly unknown, but we can say both are non-baryonic

Exotic matter vs antimatter-one of them is hypothetical (negative mass matter), while the other has been synthesized practically

 

What is Exotic matter and negative mass

It is a form of matter having a lot of very weird properties, some of the most prominent ones are

·       negative mass

·       negative energy density

let me elaborate this

Mass is a property of matter to resist any change in its motion

·       If a body has more mass we will face a lot of difficulties to move it

·       And if a body with comparatively less mass will require less effort or force to move it

Keeping this definition of matter in mind, we can say that

the negative matter will not move in the direction of the force applied, but in a direction opposite to the direction of application of force

you may find this description counter-intuitive

so let’s consider another description

According to einstein's the general theory of relativity-

·       matter can curve the space around it

·       in the same was as a heavy metal ball kept on a stretched rubber sheet would do

If we replace this heavy the metal ball on the rubber sheet with a ball made up of negative mass matter

it would curve the rubber (space) upwards opposite to what a ball of normal matter would do

Along the same lines, we can also say that-

·       if the normal matter is brought near exotic matter, it would repeal it

·       because of the upward the curvature of space around it

NOTE-If we place some negative mass matter in a box made up of normal matter, it would try to push the walls of the box far from it.

 

can we create exotic matter?

Not exactly exotic matter but a form of matter with the same properties and a negative effective mass was synthesized by scientists at the international space station

What scientists actually did was that-

they created a state of matter known as bose-einstein condensate, behaving similar to what a the negative mass matter would do

Here’s how they did it

Quantum mechanics says that matter can behave both as a particle and as a wave

The wave nature becomes more dominant when we reach at the atomic scale

For creating a bose-einstein condensate

·       we need to cool down the matter to super low temperature (close to 0 kelvin)

·       at these temperatures the atoms of matter come very close and the wave nature begins to dominate

in a way, we have magnified microscopic particle nature to a macroscopic scale

scientists cooled the atoms to low temperature by-

·       LASERs

·       Evaporative cooling 

normal intuition tells us that when we shine a laser at something it gets hotter

but

if lasers are tuned to a specific resonant frequency they can essentially cool matter down

Scientists used a technique called evaporative cooling to cool even further

in evaporative cooling-

·       some atoms from the matter are evaporated

·       these atoms take energy with them, thus reducing the temperature

NOTE-Potassium and rubidium were used to create bose-einstein condensate state of matter

·       This sample was placed inside a trap of magnetic field and bombarded with lasers

·       this experiment was done in space, so the gravity doesn't pull this sample down and their properties can be studied

 

Exotic matter vs dark matter

Exotic matter and dark matter are both very lesser-known  forms of matter, and are largely theoretical

Here are a couple of reasons how they can be different

·       However exotic matter could be a subpart of dark matter

·       Dark matter is supposed to have positive mass, as it is used to explain why galaxies don’t get ripped apart, and some matter must exert gravitational force to hold them

 

EXOTIC MATTER	DARK MATTER
It could be a subpart of dark matter	Dark matter is a broad term used for unknown forms of matter
Could be used to create wormholes	Used to explain why stars and planets don’t fly off from galaxies
Has negative mass	Should have positive mass (although negative mass is also possible)

 

Here’s how they are similar-

·       Both exotic and dark matter are not made up of electron proton and neutron, or in scientific terms, are non-baryonic 

Exotic matter vs antimatter

 

EXOTIC MATTER	ANTIMATTER
Theoretical	Practical
Has negative mass	Has positive mass
Has negative kinetic energy	Has positive energy
Can travel faster than light	Can travel at less than the speed of light

 

Conclusion-

In this article I gave you some basic information and concepts about a theoretical form of matter, exotic matter (also see: 8 topics quantum mechanics complete beginner's guide)

Will we ever discover exotic matter?

And if we do find it, what could be the consequences?

Head over to the comment section and let me know