April 26, 2016•Update: April 27, 2016
By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
Physicists at the U.S. Energy Department announced Tuesday they have discovered a new state of water beyond liquid, ice and vapor.
The “tunneling” state was discovered by squeezing water molecules into very tight spaces. When compressed into extreme positions, researchers found that water acts in very unpredictable ways.
While the scientists in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) of the Energy Department used crystals of beryl, a common mineral, to create the new form of water, they believe this state likely happens often in nature, too, but it’s likely impossible to detect with our current technology.
Specifically, the tunneling form was created in miniscule channels drilled in beryl in a hexagonal pattern. Each grove was only five angstroms across. An angstrom is 1/10-billionth of a meter, roughly the size of an individual atom.
Because of the infinitesimal size of the tunneling state, scientists believe it is connected to hard-to-prove theories in quantum physics, which usually present themselves only on very large or very small scales such as in black holes or subatomic particles.
In studying quantum physics, our normal understanding of classical physics, including the common understanding of gravity and states of matter, are tossed out.
“It’s one of those phenomena that only occur in quantum mechanics and has no parallel in our everyday experience,” lead author Alexander Kolesnikov said in a statement.
Researchers are excited about the discovery and its application buy they aren’t yet totally sure what can be done with the data.
“This discovery represents a new fundamental understanding of the behavior of water and the way water utilizes energy,” co-author Lawrence Anovitz added.
The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
