Can gases exert negative pressure?

[Andy Resnick]

Cavitation doesn't explain it. In fact, it would contradict it since when the pressure of the liquid drops below the vapor pressure, boiling of the liquid would occur. If the liquid is now vaporized you certainly can't say it supporting a tensile stress.

CS

I could have been unclear- I am referring to the *nucleation* of a bubble, not it's growth. Nucleation occurs via tunneling through a high-energy barrier (which is significantly lowered when there is dissolved gas or contaminants), and that energy barrier represents the tensile strength.

http://pof.aip.org/resource/1/pfldas/v12/i9/p1775_s1?isAuthorized=no
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2002/2001WR000282.shtml
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/la100268q