I never really got how you can go beyond absolute zero. Temperature is the movement/agitation of atoms, absolute zero means the atoms are still and don't move anymore, by definition. Lower than absolute zero temperature should mean the atoms should be "more" still than still.
Which is nonsense to me.
And what's even more nonsense, it's that temperatures "lower" than absolute zero are hotter than absolute zero.
If you read the article, there is a good explanation of exactly how it works about 40%-50% into the article... and it even says "40%" on the sidebar.
My personal reading of it [not a physicist]: If you think about reaching absolute temperature as a threshold, and the moment you cross over to a lower temperature as a new state of matter (=way of organizing), then the rules above and below do not have to match... [much like you can use a strainer to contain water before boiling, but not vapor after it boils]. You can still define temperature, i.e. the macroscopic conserved property, in terms of entropy and disorder, but now the way to organize things have changed and they have a lot more possible configurations / ways to organize and move around, so the temperature go sky high.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 20.0 ms ] threadAnd what's even more nonsense, it's that temperatures "lower" than absolute zero are hotter than absolute zero.
Can anyone explain this discrepancy ?
My personal reading of it [not a physicist]: If you think about reaching absolute temperature as a threshold, and the moment you cross over to a lower temperature as a new state of matter (=way of organizing), then the rules above and below do not have to match... [much like you can use a strainer to contain water before boiling, but not vapor after it boils]. You can still define temperature, i.e. the macroscopic conserved property, in terms of entropy and disorder, but now the way to organize things have changed and they have a lot more possible configurations / ways to organize and move around, so the temperature go sky high.