A quantum critical point is a special class of continuous phase transition that takes place at the absolute zero of temperature, typically in a material where the phase transition temperature has been driven to zero by the application of a pressure, field or through doping. Conventional phase transitions occur at finite temperature, when the growth of random thermal fluctuations leads to a change in the physical state of a system. Condensed matter physics research over the past few decades has revealed a new class of phase transitions, called a quantum phase transition, which take place at absolute zero, and which are driven by the zero point quantum fluctuations associated with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
Read more about Quantum Critical Point: Overview, Quantum Critical Endpoints, Non-equilibrium Quantum Phase Transition
Famous quotes containing the words quantum, critical and/or point:
“But how is one to make a scientist understand that there is something unalterably deranged about differential calculus, quantum theory, or the obscene and so inanely liturgical ordeals of the precession of the equinoxes.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“I know that I will always be expected to have extra insight into black texts—especially texts by black women. A working-class Jewish woman from Brooklyn could become an expert on Shakespeare or Baudelaire, my students seemed to believe, if she mastered the language, the texts, and the critical literature. But they would not grant that a middle-class white man could ever be a trusted authority on Toni Morrison.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American scholar and educator. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B2 (July 27, 1994)
““What we know, is a point to what we do not know.” Open any recent journal of science, and weigh the problems suggested concerning Light, Heat, Electricity, Magnetism, Physiology, Geology, and judge whether the interest of natural science is likely to be soon exhausted.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)