Message-Id: <l03102801b053476fe918@[153.90.236.25]>
In-Reply-To: <v01540b03b0523ba44443@[208.155.131.154]>
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 16:38:29 -0700
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: Steven Eiger <eiger@montana.edu>
Subject: Re: Matter at absolute zero
Dear Rich, Temperature seems to be a useful idea for large collections of
atoms, and seems best correlated with translational motion(maybe this is
only true in ideal gases). Physicists have stopped small groups of atoms,
I think Na gas, with lasers such that they are essentially still for a
large number of minutes. They still have angular momentum as they are
spinning or have spin, and their electrons I assume are doing the usual
thing, but they have no translational motion. As I understand it, these
small numbers of atoms are not a large enough collection for temperature to
be a valid concept, and that is why the thermodynamics law still holds.
Perhaps one could say that thermodynamics only holds for large collections
(which I think is true) and that things can be at absolute zero. I do not
know, I am only an amateur at all this.
I would be interested in what others have to add, Eiger