The convertibility of mass and energy means that at some point all of
mass in the Universe might be regarded as energy. Mass is a
steady-state form of energy. So when mass is frozen down to very low
temperature-near absolute zero-that temperature is -459.67 below zero
Fahrenheit-perhaps within a billionth of a degree of absolute zero, it
behaves strangely.
Einstein and S. Boze developed the idea that
when atoms are lowered to that temperature in a clump-instead of acting
like individual atoms they would act like one large atom. The
Boze-Einstein condensate is an interesting thing to ponder.
Atoms
have electrons that orbit a nucleus made of a proton and neutron
generally (that are in turn made of other particles or quarks). Just so
many electrons can be in particular orbits at a time-the Pauli Exclusion
principle means that electrons cannot share simple nuclei. More complex
nuclei can have different numbers of electrons in various orbits
increasing with complexity. I guess that's why heavy elements such as
uranium and thorium radiate fairly easily.
Electrons are
fascinating particles-waves. An electron has a wave like orbit with its
frequency varying along with it's energy. Sinusoidal wave analogies of
electron orbits with peaks and troughs let one regard a peak or trough
as a particle value if measured at the right time. One can't get some of
the information about the electron when determining its observation at a
particular location.
So electrons of Boze-Einstein condensates
must have virtually no activity-well, a little because they are not at
absolute zero-just close to it.
Stars have potential temperatures
of billions of degrees-in other words they have a lot of energy. Human
beings live at very low temperature on the Universal scale from hottest
to absolute zero-less than about 600 degrees above absolute zero. Human
mass though short lived from out point of view is reasonably stable for
such complex organic structures.
Could electrons ever be reduced to absolute rest at absolute zero? Absolute zero indicates the non-presence of energy?
Gravity
always acts upon mass and so confers a certain energy to it. One would
think that gravity traveling at the speed of light across space-time
would give up some of its energy to space, for gravity must have some
energy if it is to interact with mass at all. Neutrinos with nearly no
mass interact very little with mass.
One wonders if gravitational
energy would slow down at absolute zero, or if it would have its energy
ossified? Boze-Einstein condensates with mass ought to have gravity
acting upon that mass and therefore have energy implicitly lifting it
slightly above absolute zero.
Reading through a book named 'A
Matter of Degrees' explaining the history of physics on the theme of
temperature I thought of these several points about gravity and its
status at absolute zero that I assuredly can't answer. Yet they are for
myself at least interesting points.
If gravity is also a
particle-wave or something like an electro-magnetic field of vast size
on might wonder if it has some sort of natural form such as a sphere
that it returns to in space-time, and if its extent is altered by
relativity itself in a kind of recursion based on its composition, or if
absolute zero would 'freeze' gravity too.
Another derivative
concept I wondered about was the conjecture about infinities in
Einstein's general field equations that are said to be at the logical
singularity in time=0 of the universe's history. The equations (that I
couldn't process if I spent the remainder of my days upon them) might
function toward infinities, yet the actual content of mass and energy
fed into them representing the actual amount of mass in the actual
Universe probably would be finite. Even with infinite compaction it
would logically that with a finite amount of matter to start with there
would bee a finite limit to the reduction of a singularity.
Then
of course as mass is compacted it increases in energy, and the
turbulence of mass as energy perhaps reduced to its most basic form as a
one-dimensional membrane makes one think of the opposite super-cool
Boze-Einstein condensate acting as a single atom something like a
perfect crystal matrix with everything including electrons frozen.
I wonder if the extension of the special theory of relativity beyond the speed of light as was recently proposed by physicists with two new transformations besides the Lorentz transformation with objects traveling at c still reaching a singularity would apply in a low temperature environment or high temperature equally well?
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-physicists-special-relativity.html
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