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Strange matter: A type of quark matter that may exist inside some neutron stars close to the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit (approximately 2–3 solar masses). May be stable at lower energy states once formed. Quark matter: Hypothetical phases of matter whose degrees of freedom include quarks and gluons Color-glass condensate
Matter is a general term describing any 'physical substance'. By contrast, mass is not a substance but rather an extensive property of matter and other substances or systems; various types of mass are defined within physics – including but not limited to rest mass, inertial mass, relativistic mass, and mass–energy.
In regular cold matter, quarks, fundamental particles of nuclear matter, are confined by the strong force into hadrons that consist of 2–4 quarks, such as protons and neutrons. Quark matter or quantum chromodynamical (QCD) matter is a group of phases where the strong force is overcome and quarks are deconfined and free to move.
Einstein subsequently identified matter as ultimately composed of various concentrations of energy. [ 1 ] [ 3 ] Subatomic constituents of the atom were first identified toward the end of the 19th century , beginning with the electron , followed by the proton in 1919, the photon in the 1920s, and the neutron in 1932. [ 1 ]
The field equations of condensed matter physics are remarkably similar to those of high energy particle physics. As a result, much of the theory of particle physics applies to condensed matter physics as well; in particular, there are a selection of field excitations, called quasi-particles, that can be created and explored. These include:
Contentions include the absence of an explanation in the Standard Model of particle physics for the observed amount of cold dark matter (CDM) and its contributions to dark energy, which are many orders of magnitude too large. It is also difficult to accommodate the observed predominance of matter over antimatter (matter/antimatter asymmetry).
General relativity is the geometrical theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915/16. [ 9 ] [ 10 ] It unifies special relativity, Newton's law of universal gravitation , and the insight that gravitation can be described by the curvature of space and time.
The science of matter is also addressed by physics, but while physics takes a more general and fundamental approach, chemistry is more specialized, being concerned by the composition, behavior (or reaction), structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions.