Research Group: Center for Condensed Matter Physics Full-time Project: yes
A fully funded PhD position is available in the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary University of London in the group of Prof Kostya Trachenko. Please get in touch with Kostya by email to discuss (k.trachenko@qmul.ac.uk). For UK applicants, the studentship covers home fees and a stipend. For international applicants, we have a limited number of funded places in line with the EPSRC guidance. Due to this cap, we are unable to guarantee places for all international applicants.
According to current understanding, no differences can be made between a gas and a liquid above the critical point, an abrupt terminus of the liquid-gas coexisting line. Recently, we have discovered that this is not the case and proposed that a new line, the Frenkel line, exists on the phase diagram above the critical point at arbitrarily high pressure and temperature, and which separates two physically distinct states of matter [1,2]. Crossing the line corresponds to qualitative changes of the key physical properties of the system, including viscosity where it becomes quantum and attains the smalles value possible [3-5]. One implication of this is that water and life and well attuned to the degress of quantumness of the physical world [5], raising interesting new questions. This project will use the combination of molecular dynamics simulations and theory to advance our fundamental understanding of the supercritical state of matter and its new transitions and properties. In addition to fundamental understanding, this project will have an applied component: the supercritical fluids are increasingly used in important extracting and cleaning processes as well as environmental applications to treat, separate and break a wide range of dangerous and toxic wastes from chemical, pharmaceutical and nuclear industry. The fluid solubility and extracting efficiency are maximal at the Frenkel line, and will calculate the line for several important ionic fluids. [1] K Trachenko and V Brazhkin, Collective modes and thermodynamics of the liquid state, Reports on Progress in Physics 79, 016502 (2016) [2] C Cockrell, V Brazhkin and K Trachenko, Transition in the supercritical state of matter: review of experimental evidence, Physics Reports 941, 1 (2021) [3] K Trachenko and V Brazhkin, Minimal quantum viscosity from fundamental physical constants, Science Advances 6, eaba3747 (2020) [4] Physics World, https://physicsworld.com/a/fluids-only-get-so-runny-as-physicists-put-a-universal-lower-limit-on-viscosity [5] K Trachenko and V Brazhkin, The quantum mechanics of viscosity, Physics Today 74, 12, 66 (2021)
SPCS Academics: Prof Kostya Trachenko