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Superfluid

By , About.com Guide

Definition: A superfluid is a special phase of matter in which, when cooled to temperatures near absolute zero, the molecules exhibit strange quantum effects.

Some superfluids, such as helium-4 (helium with 4 nucleons - 2 protons & 2 neutrons), are bosons and therefore form a Bose-Einstein condensate when cooled into liquid form.

One effect of this is that the viscosity of superfluid helium-4 becomes zero, meaning that normal rules of surface tension, such as capillarity, are no longer obeyed. A superfluid in a glass tube will literally "crawl" up the side of the tube in a thin film because of this property.

Other superfluids, such as helium-3, are fermions, but they can also exhibit superfluid properties due to other quantum effects that are part of the BCS theory of superconducitivity.

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