Exotic matter
Overview
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, exotic matter is a term which refers to matter
Matter
Matter is a general term for the substance of which all physical objects consist. Typically, matter includes atoms and other particles which have mass. A common way of defining matter is as anything that has mass and occupies volume...
which would somehow deviate from the norm and have "exotic" properties. There are several uses of the term.
- Hypothetical particlesSubatomic particleIn physics or chemistry, subatomic particles are the smaller particles composing nucleons and atoms. There are two types of subatomic particles: elementary particles, which are not made of other particles, and composite particles...
which have "exotic" physical propertiesPhysical propertyA physical property is any property that is measurable whose value describes a physical system's state. The changes in the physical properties of a system can be used to describe its transformations ....
that would violate known laws of physics, such as a particle having a negative massNegative massIn theoretical physics, negative mass is a hypothetical concept of matter whose mass is of opposite sign to the mass of the normal matter. Such matter would violate one or more energy conditions and show some strange properties such as being repelled rather than attracted by gravity. It is used in...
. - Hypothetical particles which have not yet been encountered, such as exotic baryonExotic baryonExotic baryons are hypothetical composite particles which are bound states of 3 quarks and additional elementary particles. This is to be contrasted with ordinary baryons, which are bound states of just 3 quarks. The additional particles may include quarks, antiquarks or gluons.One such exotic...
s, but whose properties would be within the realm of mainstream physics if found to exist.
