What theoretically happens when at atom hits absolute zero?

Question

And then thaws out again?

There's a project starting in May 2008 in a lab in Switzerland where they are going to try and test this theory. Some say that it may create some kind of black hole or something to where it will be possible to destroy Earth and possibly the entire universe. But, since it's never happened, no one really know what it will do. Just dandy, if you ask me.

Answer 1

A black hole would only destroy the earth. It's vacuum decay that would destroy the entire universe within a bubble expanding at the speed of light in all directions. A black hole has been proven to be impossible via an argument by a blue ribbon panel of experts. Their authority is so great, that they skipped the whole peer review process for their report due to it being a waste of their time. The panel also concluded that the odds of vacuum decay destroying space was acceptably small by using a statistical argument that ignores Bayes' Theorem of conditional probability (If the odds were significant, we probably wouldn't be here). However, the argument did quell the voices of worry-warts (which was the whole point), so experiments will proceed as planned.

Answer 2

Wow... not a single bit of this statement is correct. Not a first but rarely achieved.

One can not reach absolute zero.

"Thawing" is a property related to a phase transition, not temperature change per se and nothing would "thaw" at 0K. You need considerably higher temperatures than that.

CERN is doing nothing about cooling atoms. It is instead heating elementary particles to absolutely unimaginable temperatures by accelerating them.

LHC can not create black holes.

No black hole an accelerator smaller than the size of a galaxy could create would survive for any macroscopic amount of time.

Just because something never happened does not mean we don't know what would happen. Try standing on the tracks while a freight train runs over them at 70mph. Just because it never happened to you does not mean we don't know that you would get killed instantly.

So in short: none of this is dandy and you look pretty foolish.

But I think I have fed enough troll for today.

:-)

Answer 3

Well, that means it would lose all kinetic energy and then gain it back right? I think the atom would become a supersolid (any solid you touch at normal temperatures has its atoms vibrating with energy, though it may be just a little) with very, well, solid properties. Of course, I'm not a physicist with a doctorate, so I can't think on the scale of a black hole being created, but that just seems absurd to me.

Answer 4

1) Volume and temparature is not directly inverse of each other. Simple observation: a 300 degree stove is not 15 times bigger than a stove at room temparature. 2) According to Buddism, Life neither exists nor disappeared, life neither created nor destroyed.. It only changes forms.... there's always "life", at 30C, at 0C, at -200C... At absolute 0, you would become another you (perhaps a hard solid figure). When temperature returns to normal, that you will become another you (perhaps a moving figure again). There's a chance that you would be much like you but it is not you. 3) According to Budda, one should stop wondering these improbable questions as they serve no good to his/her soul. It's same as asking whether chicken or egg came first, when did the universe begin. Having answers to these will not make you a better person, will not make this world a better peaceful place. Spend your energy on giving your love to all living things.

Answer 5

there are two types of destroy which occurs in universe. First one is when the mass of the stars is small or lesser than that of other stars, if it occures then the star will destory finally when its hydrogen level decrease to zero, as that of our sun, where we can see the hydrogen level decreasing periodically then after more certain millions of years it will attain this stage. Another type of destroy which is known as supernova, it usually occures when the mass of the star is very large, if it possess such mass then the nature of the star will differ from the one which we saw first, here the star substantially shrink and its gravity field will become such a strong as that it will not even allow its own light to go out!! if it occurs then we cant see that there is a star present, if the star comes to this position then only with the help of its planet one can able to detect its presence.

Answer 6

Atoms usually flock together in a material mass structure.
The pressure of gravity pushes them together . Temperature Energy tries to push them apart.So when you put heat energy in a material it cause its atoms to move apart. Each type of material has its own coeficient of expansion.

If you remove enough heat from the atoms ,their temperature will drop and the atoms will schrink in size. If you remove enough heat the atoms will be pushed together by Gravity pressure until thery are very snug. However , its components such a electrons,protons and neutrons will not cease to move because they possess structural energy. So when a temperature of 0 k is reached we have a frozen atom. However; its component are moving with a reduced mass at a speed close to the speed of light in order to maintain their energy of structure constant.
The Absolute zero cannot really be achieved other wise the atom would be destroyed and break up into its basic components which would fly out at the speed of light. It is really not feasible to achieve such a feat.

Answer 7

Last I heard it was theoretically impossible to achieve absolute zero. In fact, this is what the third law of thermodynamics says...you can't achieve absolute zero...just get arbitrarily close. My question for you is this: since temperature is defined as the average kinetic energy of a group of atoms, isn't it nonsense to speak about the temperature of an individual atom? I'd say those Swiss scientists didn't pay attention in statistical mechanics and thermodynamics class.

Answer 8

The thermal motion reaches a minimum, as per quantum mechanics. Motion can't stop altogether, as that would violate the uncertainty principle. In practice, things won't be much different that has already been done; temperatures of a fraction of a millionth of a degree have been obtained, and of course absolute zero is not obtainable.

Answer 9

they cannot reach absolute zero, they will never be able to "test" this theory.

The black hole idea is in fact pertaining to high energy particle accelerators that create a high concentration of massive particles (quark tops) which have a density equal to black holes and thus started to theoricize that once such a density is achieved, it will suck other surrounding atoms and grow into a bigger black hole.

This theory has been proven false by Stephen Hawkings as the life of such a small black hole is too short for it to grow and suck our planet.

Answer 10

If this were possible you would have solved the question of how to store feasible material.
Since Einstein says that matter is energy and an atom is matter.