Tag Archives: adiabatic

A technique for cooling a paramagnetic salt, such as potassium chrome alum, to a temperature near absolute zero. The salt is placed between the poles of an electromagnet and the heat produced during magnetization is re­moved by liquid helium. The salt is then isolated thermally from the sur­roundings and the field is switched off; the salt is demagnetized adiabati­cally and …

adiabatic approximation An ap­proximation used in quantum me­chanics when the time dependence of parameters, such as the internuclear distance between atoms in a molecule, is slowly varying. This ap­proximation means that the solution of the Schrodinger equation at one time goes continuously over to the solution at a later time. It was formu­lated by Max Born and the Soviet physicist …