Talk:Degenerate matter

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[edit] References

This article lacks any references. Perhaps it is all common knowledge to physicists, but an important part of Wikipedia is providing research avenues for people, and such. GBMorris 01:58, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Errors

A commentator who appears to know what he's talking about has mentioned very recently that this article contains factual errors. Just FYI, since not knowing much about the subject myself I can't find or fix them. --Kizor 02:09, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

What?! Solids degenerate matter? Either it is too late or there is something wrong here....--AN 07:06 Nov 7, 2002 (UTC)

After one false start I have now addressed the above query (see article history). It was certainly worth doing as it provided the opportunity to point to metals, thereby linking together solid state physics as well as astrophysics and quantum mechanics. Alan Peakall 12:13 Nov 8, 2002 (UTC)


[edit] A proposed name for white dwarf material.

I have a suggestion for a name for white dwarf material => densimetal

I've choose this name basically because white dwarf material is very, very dense, and has many similarities to metals (or should metals be considered something similar to white dwarf material? :-) ).

What do you think about this name?

Marcio Fialho 2:57 Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)

This seems to me wrong terminology - the conduction electrons alone as a degenerate, free electron gas - What!!! an electron gas? this is confusing as a gas is the most compressible state and degenerate matter is as far as one can get from compressiblity. Gepay@jaemspay@ntelos .net a gas of electrons ho ho ho I believe in Santa Claus and dark matter

  • Wouldn't that be original research, or vanity ?

[edit] Eleetism Detected

can you guys rewrite that article so that normal people can understand what you are talking of!? what is 'dominant contribution'? the article is written in a way that only people who know what degenerate matter is can recognize the meaning.it is not explanatory. if you know what that article is about you might say:"oh well". but someone without any knowledge about that matter wont get any benefit out of it. --212.202.37.226 21:03, 17 May 2005 (UTC)jangirke

I've glanced at this article. Certainly a person who does not know any physics could not understand it, but maybe that is because this topic can be understood only by those who know some physics. It does not look to me as if you need to know what degenerate matter is to understand the definition given here. The words "dominant contribution" would be understood by any normal high-school graduate. You'd be more credible if you'd learn to spell elite and elitism. Michael Hardy 22:36, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I got A's in two university physics classes, although it was some time ago, and I found the article to be a bit over my head. Actually, I think I understood more of the article as a result of taking Chemistry than Physics, but I digress. As I understand it, this is matter that is so dense that the electrons don't have the ability to orbit at the normal radius (quantum state) and therefore is compacted beyond a density that would normally be obtained through mere physical compression. Not enough compression for fusion, but somewhere in between a normal state and a state ready for fusion. Now, I probably have something wrong here, but it would sure be nice if this were edited to a more approachable level for the average Wikipedia reading level. This sort of material is found in brown dwarfs, so a link to there would also be nice. KellyCoinGuy
So far I've read a few paragraphs in, and I find the article to be excellent so far. It is written so a noob like me with no physics background can get an idea of what's being discussed. This is much better than I can say for almost any other "fancy" physics article I've read on Wikipedia. Radishes (talk) 03:17, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A degenerate gas is not particularly incompressible

Contrary to what I'm reading here, an ideal degenerate gas is not particularly incompressible. A nonrelativistic degenerate gas has an adiabatic index of 5/3, the same as an ordinary monatomic gas such as helium. A relativistic ideal gas has an adiabatic index of 4/3, which is quite compressible -- more compressible than ordinary air, with an adiabatic index of 1.4.

The incompressibility of solids is not a consequence of degeneracy. It is a consequence of short-range repulsive forces between the core electrons of the atoms making up the solid.

--Kgbudge 05:38, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Editing pass completed

I've made minor tweaks to the neutron- and electron-degeneracy paragraphs (mostly noting mass cutoffs), and added stub content for proton-, quark-, and preon-degeneracy paragraphs. I really don't think the preon-degeneracy section belongs in this article at all, as there are presently no serious proposals that preons exist (my understanding is that they were ruled out by accelerator experiments some time in the 1990s). I've put it in its own section for now (on speculative forms of degenerate matter).

If anyone who's actually a researcher in the field could add more detail to the proton degeneracy section, it would be greatly appreciated. I dug up information on it being a useful corrective term for models of metallic hydrogen formation and equations of state during supernova explosions, but I don't know what the standard "everyone-cites-these" papers and references on the topic are. --Christopher Thomas 07:50, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Difference between momentum and velocity.

"Because protons are much more massive than electrons, the same minimum momentum represents a much smaller velocity for protons than for electrons. As a result, in matter with approximately equal numbers of protons and electrons, proton degeneracy pressure is much smaller than electron degeneracy pressure..."

The author is apparently unaware that velocity does not figure into pressure. Pressure, especially here, is momentum per time per area. It's not velocity that matters. It's area. It's kind of hard to write an article about particle physics when you don't even understand Newtonian physics. --76.209.50.222 18:23, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Velocity figures into the time element of pressure. A gas of an equal number of slower velocity particles will have fewer particle impacts per unit area per unit time, and thus lower pressure given the same particle momentum.Warren Dew 00:20, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Yes. this article is bloated and full of loose statements. I hope to find time to work on it. Dark Formal 04:50, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] question

i'm pretty much ignorant concerning physics yet i'm in need finding out what a degenerate crystal phase is. is this article the right place to look for an answer?--Vandreou 10:21, 10 June 2007 (UTC)