Sunday, January 20, 2008

Bose-Einstein Condensates and Absolute Zero

I remember this being a big deal when I was working on my Physics degree - it is interesting to see how things have progressed even since I graduated.

about Bose Einstein Condensates and Absolute Zero, a few things were said in it by the scientists that struck me as having very interesting philosophical connotations.
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For one, when the atoms are cooled very close to absolute zero, they are no longer solid, liquid, or gas, but a whole other state of matter in which the particles are no longer atoms, but become like stretched out waves and their quantum states start to meld with each other so that in a sense, they all lose their identities and become one mixed state.

So when their energy is removed, their identity is removed, and what remains is unity.

Every thing has its unique energy or vibration that identifies it. Is the loss of that vibration the 'death' of that material, so that its identity leaves it? Or is it a birth of a new stage of existence, or a return to a more profound, fundamental existence?

Another interesting thing said was that although scientists have gotten within a few picoKelvin of absolute zero, to achieve truly absolute zero is an asymptote or limit. To achieve it, you would need infinite time and apparatus infinitely large.

So it is impossible to completely remove all energy, or all "being" or all "information".

The vibrations of things at least seem to continue to the extent of remembering their existence, or their Creation, impossible to be removed by other Created things. In the end when almost no energy or identity is left, there is still the sign of Origin. Every Created Being contains the sign of its Origin, even when every other "information" is taken away.

Matter itself has a relation to the presence of energy. As Einstein wrote, matter can be converted to energy and vice versa. The payout of energy converted from matter is very large (by the factor of the speed of light squared, apparently) - indicating that the form of matter contains great potential energy. Heat is a register of energy and making something colder is achieved by removing energy. Would Absolute Zero then require the loss even of that great energy contained in the form of matter itself - the loss of the matter itself?

Incidentally, the speed of light is a constant from what we know, but really it is like an index - it has different speeds in different mediums. Some scientists have passed light through Bose-Einstein condensates and slowed light almost to a stop. They are pursuing this as a potential means of storing information. The information contained in the light is "frozen" yet undamaged for later retrieval.

I found those two ideas to have a lot of implications. I saw connections or implications about the very nature of ourselves and all matter that we know, and our origins (which if you can't tell yet, means it makes me think about God). What do you think?

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