Criticality

Criticality may refer to:

Physics terms

 * Critical phenomena, the collective name associated with the physics of critical points
 * Critical point (thermodynamics), the end point of a phase equilibrium curve
 * Quantum critical point, a special class of continuous phase transition that takes place at absolute zero

Nuclear-physics terms

 * Critical mass, referring to criticality in nuclear physics, when a nuclear reactor's fissionable material can sustain a chain reaction by itself
 * Criticality (status), a milestone in the commissioning of a nuclear power plant
 * Criticality accident, an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction
 * Nuclear criticality safety, the prevention of nuclear and radiation accidents resulting from an inadvertent, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
 * Prompt critical, an assembly for each nuclear fission event

Other terms

 * Critical thinking, in education
 * Criticality index, in risk analysis
 * Criticality matrix, a representation (often graphical) of failure modes along with their probabilities and severities
 * Self-organized criticality, a property of (classes of) dynamical systems which have a critical point as an attractor