Beyond Absolute Zero: A Hotter Negative Temperature (2 of 2) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Beyond Absolute Zero: A Hotter Negative Temperature (2 of 2)

Caption

Energy distribution of atoms in a thermal state. For positive absolute temperatures (upper part, blue), the low energy states have the highest population; for negative absolute temperatures, the high energy states are more occupied. This image relates to a paper that appeared in Jan. 4, 2013, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by Simon Braun at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Munich, Germany, and colleagues was titled, “Negative Absolute Temperature for Motional Degrees of Freedom.”

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Image courtesy of LMU / MPQ Munich

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