What happens at absolute zero?

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by Magical Realist, Nov 19, 2014.

  1. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Do electrons stop moving? What else happens? Any phase transitions?
     
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  3. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Absolute zero doesn't exist. So it's a nonsensical question.
     
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  5. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    Absolute zero for atoms is the lowest possible energy state. The electrons are "moving", but they can't lose any more energy.
     
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  7. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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  8. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Absolute zero is a temperature. A single atom doesn't really have a temperature. Temperature is a property of a collection of particles, atoms or whatever.

    So consider an ideal gas of many single atoms. The temperature of that gas is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the atoms. At absolute zero, that average kinetic energy would be zero, which would imply that all of the atoms are no longer moving.
     
  9. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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  10. danshawen Valued Senior Member

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    Yes. As has been pointed out, temperature is an averaging of energies of moving particles (of matter).

    Temperature is another physics concept that will be needing revision, and the list is getting longer fast. Can thermodynamics be far behind?

    Matter at the ground state, perfectly insulated and neither absorbing nor emitting photons of any energy, is nevertheless interacting with the Higgs field, which is, by the way, a much more energetic interaction than whatever happens to the same atoms with massless photons.

    Good one or even two or three.

    The range of possible temperatures (through infinity, negative infinity) is old hat. They even taught that to me in the 1970s.
     
  11. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks to those who actually gave real answers to my so-called "nonsensical" question.
     
    cluelusshusbund likes this.
  12. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    Absolute zero is our birth. You cant have one without it. Knowledge is learned, proof of time.
     
  13. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Err... what?

    kx000: This is the Physics & Math forum. Take a hike to pseudoscience or something.
     
    exchemist likes this.
  14. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Just to deal with the electron part of your question, electrons definitely do not stop moving in an atom at absolute zero. The atom will be in its Ground State, which means the electrons will be in the bottom energy level permitted to them. But in this bottom level they are still in motion - or at least the particle analogue of these wave-particle entities is effectively in motion.

    This is one of many examples of so-called zero point energy, i.e. residual energy that cannot be extracted.
     
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  15. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    While absolute zero is not attainable, a group of atoms/molecules can have a temperature very close to it.

    Google BEC which stands for Bose-Einstein Condensate. It might be necessary to google the full name rather than BEC.

    The properties of such a group of atoms/molecules is considered to be experimental confirmation of the Uncertainty Principle.

    The atoms/molecules in a BEC seem to lose their individual identities because the momentum of each is very close to zero (Id est: Very precisely known), making the locations less precise. Each atom/molecule seems to occupy a volume much larger than normal & the locations of each atom/molecule seem to overlap.

    Contrary to the belief of many people, the Uncertainty Principle is not a statement about some limitations on measurement technology. It is a claim that increased precision relating to location requires decreased precision relating to momentum.
     
    exchemist likes this.

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