In the mid-1 800s, Lord Kelvin postulated that nothing could be colder than the temperature of absolute zero degrees, when all atomic particles are at rest. But in the mid-20th century, physicists realized that the mathematics governing absolute temperature indicated that subzero temperatures were possible and, soon after that they were demonstrated. Recently, the first subzero Kelvin temperatures were achieved for particles in motion. Temperature depends on the kinetic and potential energies of atoms and on the interactions between them. By using an optical lattice of laser beams, atoms could still move, but their kinetic and potential energies were held in check. Researchers controlled interactions between the atoms with magnetic fields. This discovery has implications for technology, because negative temperatures could result in more efficient heat engines, and for cosmology, because negative temperatures may explain properties of dark energy.
...MoreDescription Looks at the history of subzero temperatures and its implications for technology and cosmology.
Book
Paul J. Nahin;
(2020)
Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons: From the Mathematics of Heat to the Development of the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable
(/isis/citation/CBB042236017/)
Book
Gavroglu, Kostas;
(2014)
History of Artificial Cold: Scientific, Technological and Cultural Issues
(/isis/citation/CBB001500399/)
Article
Guedj, Muriel;
(2006)
Du concept de travail vers celui d'énergie: L'apport de Thomson
(/isis/citation/CBB000760016/)
Article
Kragh, Helge;
(2012)
Preludes to Dark Energy: Zero-Point Energy and Vacuum Speculations
(/isis/citation/CBB001232492/)
Article
John P. McCaskey;
(2020)
History of ‘Temperature’: Maturation of a Measurement Concept
(/isis/citation/CBB310316254/)
Book
Ofer Lahav;
Lucy Calder;
Julian Mayers;
(2020)
The Dark Energy Survey: The Story of a Cosmological Experiment
(/isis/citation/CBB966761620/)
Article
Chang, Hasok;
Yi, Sang Wook;
(2005)
The Absolute and Its Measurement: William Thomson on Temperature
(/isis/citation/CBB000550829/)
Book
Helge S. Kragh;
James M. Overduin;
(2014)
The Weight of the Vacuum: A Scientific History of Dark Energy
(/isis/citation/CBB400711816/)
Book
Hunt, Bruce J.;
(2010)
Pursuing Power and Light: Technology and Physics from James Watt to Albert Einstein
(/isis/citation/CBB001020403/)
Article
Shaul Katzir;
(2017)
Technological entrepreneurship from patenting to commercializing: a survey of late nineteenth and early twentieth century physics lecturers
(/isis/citation/CBB606046346/)
Book
Bruce J. Hunt;
(2021)
Imperial Science: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in the Victorian British Empire
(/isis/citation/CBB544275565/)
Article
Hentschel, Klaus;
(2005)
Macedonio Melloni über strahlende Wärme
(/isis/citation/CBB000671392/)
Article
Riccardo Rosso;
Alessio Brioschi;
(2016)
Eugenio Beltrami's Courses on the Analytic and Mechanical Theory of Heat. I. Analytic Theory of Heat
(/isis/citation/CBB583677112/)
Article
Chang, Hasok;
(2002)
Rumford and the Reflection of Radiant Cold: Historical Reflections and Metaphysical Reflexes
(/isis/citation/CBB000200078/)
Article
Vaquero, José M.;
Santos, Andrés;
(2001)
Heat and Kinetic Theory in 19th-Century Physics Textbooks: The Case of Spain
(/isis/citation/CBB000101860/)
Article
Buntebarth, Günter;
(2002)
Temperature Measurements Below the Earth's Surface: A History of Records
(/isis/citation/CBB000470504/)
Article
Tazzioli, Rossana;
(2001)
Green's Function in Some Contributions of 19th Century Mathematicians
(/isis/citation/CBB000100594/)
Multimedia Object
Jim Stein;
Nahin, Paul J.;
(2020)
Paul Nahin, “Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons” (Princeton UP, 2020)
(/isis/citation/CBB088116271/)
Article
Reif-Acherman, Simón;
(2010)
Henri Victor Regnault: Experimentalist of the Science of Heat
(/isis/citation/CBB001036144/)
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McCormmach, Russell;
(2004)
Speculative Truth: Henry Cavendish, Natural Philosophy, and the Rise of Modern Theoretical Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000772341/)
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