There are so many properties of matter that the notion of "solid liquid gas" is about as ridiculous as the ancient notion of alchemy where matter/energy is a function of earth, wind and fire.
Cool something down and turns into to a solid, that is, until you cool it so much it becomes a liquid again, that climbs walls to fall out of cups. Matter is bizarre.
From the press release: "The QSL is a solid crystal, but its magnetic state is described as liquid: Unlike the other two kinds of magnetism, the magnetic orientations of the individual particles within it fluctuate constantly, resembling the constant motion of molecules within a true liquid." I'm not sure why the extremetech article calls it a new state of matter.
Catagorizing new matter/energy phemenon as a state of matter just confuses the understanding. If the particle is simultaneously exhibiting qualities of liquid and a solid, it means a shift in thinking is required.
Iron is solid, but that doesn't mean we should group it with other things that are hard. The other hard object might be hard for a completely different quantum mechanical reason.
The problem is there's a conflation here. "States of matter" which are solid/liquid/gas and "states of matter" which are quantum spin liquids are not the same thing. One is an English term, and one is a more precise physic/chemistry term.
Don't try to understand one in terms of the other. And your "shift in thinking" has loooong since occurred. It just isn't useful to conventional English, so it has not picked it up.
What constitutes a state of matter is very well defined, and in my opinion the Wikipedia article linked above explains it very well to a non-technical audience. The shift in thinking has happened more than 130 years ago, it was well established around 1870. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_mechanics
Its nuclei and inner electrons are solid. Its valence electrons are a gas, allowing it to conduct electricity. Different parts of the material can be in different states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_matter
There are so many properties of matter that the notion of "solid liquid gas" is about as ridiculous as the ancient notion of alchemy where matter/energy is a function of earth, wind and fire.
Cool something down and turns into to a solid, that is, until you cool it so much it becomes a liquid again, that climbs walls to fall out of cups. Matter is bizarre.