The type of "negative temperature" discussed in the article is not actually colder than absolute zero. It corresponds to something that has alot of energy so it cannot be called a heat sink. This "Negative temperature" is a statistical consequence of "population inversion", whereby most of the particles are confined to a higher energy state, which is unlike the usual Bolztmann statistics where most particles have low kinetic energy and only a few have high kinetic energy. The aim of Boltzmann statistics was to explain temperature in terms of the kinetics of vast numbers of microscopic particles. A temperature below absolute zero that is hotter than absolute zero is an oxymoron and is a sign there is something intellectually bankrupt with physics.
Harry On Sun., Nov. 15, 2020, 4:07 p.m. Jones Beene, <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote: > H LV wrote: > > Using a cup of coffee as a starting point this blogger provides a friendly > introduction to the history of the science of heat. He also leaves the > reader with an open question. > > https://www.beanthinking.org/?tag=caloric > > Harry > > Well-named article... even though it chooses to ignore implications of > "negative temperature" (below zero K). > > And why not? It is a contentious subject. Here is an older Science News > article which touches on negative temperature. > > https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130104143516.htm > > But ... for the sake of argument, imagine that a simple experiment > determines two things about the special type of hydrogen which is formed > via the Holmlid/Mills effect - which effect results in a dense hydrogen > species that should be useful in its own right, even after giving up > anomalous heat. This would be a second use of the Holmlid effect. > > Furthermore let's assume that one characteristic of this H* gas (besides > higher density) is that the atoms do not repel each other as does normal > hydrogen -- since electrons have been catalytically moved into stable lower > orbitals - which make the apparent nuclear charge more positive than > before to its surroundings (due to the negative near-field of orbital > electrons being compressed. Thus. thus dense H clusters can be easily > formed. Even if the effect of negative temperature is weak, it points the > way to a simple energy anomaly in thermal conversion efficiency . > > Proposed application of negative temperature effect: It could be possible > such a dense hydrogen gas, mixed together with an inert gas like Argon > (which atoms do repel one another) -- to construct a new type of Sterling > piston engine which is extremely efficient, perhaps twice the Carnot > efficiency using only solar heat, since there is an effective heat sink > available from within the gas itself - which can be used to harness a bit > of negative temperature. > > Of course, this is assuming that "negative temperature" and dense hydrogen > are both real and interrelated. > > The bottom line is that atoms of dense hydrogen would tend to exert a > negative instead of a positive pressure when heated. As a consequence, the > atoms for a dense cloud which "wants to contract" when thermal input and > this is balanced against the Argon component, which is more like a perfect > gas. For this to work there would probably need to be a permeable membrane > to separate the two gas, but there are a few good candidates for this. > > Maybe this is a product of too much coffee... > >
