Undergrad Can Relativistic Matter Exist At Absolute Zero? - Explained

[James William Hall]

TL;DR

A question about relativistic matter

If it were possible to obtain absolute zero, could relativistic matter exist when classical momentum would be zero? Would a particle cease to exist? I can't do the math. Thank you for reading my question.

 

[Ibix]

I presume you are thinking of the rest energy/rest mass of a particle and have read that particles have no energy at absolute zero. The latter is incorrect - absolute zero just means no thermal energy, i.e. that all an object's particles are at rest with respect to each other, and not rotating or vibrating or anything like that. Rest energy (including mass, chemical potential, etc) would remain.

There are problems with reaching absolute zero even in principle once you introduce quantum theory, but there's no logical problem with it in non-quantum contexts.

 

[James William Hall]

I presume you are thinking of the rest energy/rest mass of a particle and have read that particles have no energy at absolute zero. The latter is incorrect - absolute zero just means no thermal energy, i.e. that all an object's particles are at rest with respect to each other, and not rotating or vibrating or anything like that. Rest energy (including mass, chemical potential, etc) would remain.

There are problems with reaching absolute zero even in principle once you introduce quantum theory, but there's no logical problem with it in non-quantum contexts.

Thank you, Ibix.