Can He Gas Be Compressed into a Quark Plasma State?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the thermodynamic behavior of helium (He) gas under compression in a thermo-isolated tank. Participants explore whether compressing He gas can lead to a solid state, the relationship between temperature and pressure, and the potential for creating a quark plasma state. It is concluded that helium gas does not transition to a solid state under compression due to insufficient attractive forces, and the temperature increase is expected to be linear with pressure. The negative Joule-Thomson coefficient of helium indicates that it heats upon expansion and cools upon compression until the coefficient changes sign.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of thermodynamics principles
  • Familiarity with phase transitions of gases
  • Knowledge of the Joule-Thomson effect
  • Basic concepts of quark plasma and neutron stars
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the Joule-Thomson effect in gases, particularly helium
  • Study phase transitions in helium under varying temperature and pressure conditions
  • Explore the properties of quark plasma and its formation in astrophysical contexts
  • Investigate the thermodynamic behavior of gases in isolated systems
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Physicists, thermodynamics students, and researchers interested in the behavior of gases under extreme conditions, particularly those studying phase transitions and high-energy states of matter.

fargoth
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ok, i have forgotten my thermodynamics, and need a confirmation for my thoughts here...if youd compress He gas by blowing more gas into a thermo-isolated tank, the tank would get hotter right?
and after compressing it enough the gas will become fluid (thats not a real phase transition, but you can't call it gas nor liquid after some density).

1) would you get a solid state after even more compression?
-my guess is no, because i can't see anything that would cause such a phase transition, i don't think the attractive powers will ever get strong enough if we started with He gas at room temprature and 1atm, as the temprature keeps rising when we compress it.

2) will there be a change of the temprature gradient as a function of pressure or will the temprature rise leniearly as a function of pressure?
-my guess is it'll rise linearly, because the work done for increasing the pressure is always the same for constant volume, but youd get less molecules inside the tank per unit pressure increase.

3) what would happen if youd compress it all enough to become "quark plasma" (like neutron star)?
- my guess is that it'll be VERY hot, it should make an explosion when it collapses like stars do, and we'll probably won't see it anymore, because light doesn't interact with it anymore.

am i right?
please regard all three guesses...

EDIT:
by the way, i kinda got carried away with this post, so the title is a bit misleading, no cooling here if I am right... so if any moderator is there, feel free to change the subject's name...
 
Last edited:
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There's actually some debate as to wether or not helium would be a solid at high pressure;

http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0953-8984/16/10/L02/cm4_10_l02.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
thanks for the reply,
so they don't know what happen's at low temprature and high pressure.
but I am not necessarily talking of low temprature, if my guesses are correct the system should be very hot...

anyway, i ran into something interesting here:
"This gas (He) has a negative Joule-Thomson coefficient at normal ambient temperatures, meaning it heats up when allowed to freely expand."

does that mean that on expansion it gets heated, and on compression it gets cold? (until the coefficient changes its sign)?
 

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