Third law of Thermodynamics: is it broken?

There are always some invisible barriers in the physical science - the edge of the detectable universe-the cosmological horizon is one, and the relativistic speed limit,Beyond which no object can accelerate, is another .A third such barrier is absolute zero Temperature, the state beyond which matter cannot be cooled, in which all molecular motion ceases .

Absolute zero, as a theoretical concept, was found as early as 1699, in the work of the French physicist Guillaume Amontons, conducted experiments in temperature and it’s measurement, but still it is a mystery why it is unattainable. The numerical value of absolute zero is -273.15 degrees Celsius or -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.

The first significant step in the direction of achieving absolute zero was taken in the 1880s when a French mining engineer named Louis-Paul Cailetet liquefied Oxygen,At about-200 degrees Fahrenheit .Today, when temperature of less than a degree above Absolute zero are achievable, this trend continues at the University of Florida, is Gainesville, where a new cryogenics laboratory has been opened recently.

The first law of thermodynamics (also known as law of conservation of energy) holds that energy can neither created nor destroyed. It establishes an exact relation between heat and work. But it does not tell us the direction of energy transformation.

The second law, which governs the direction of the flow of heat, dictates that during every transformation of energy, a certain amount is dissipated and so, is unavailable for doing work. It introduces a new thermodynamic variable named Entropy which is the measurement of disorder. With disorder, entropy increases.

By an orderly sate of molecules in a substance we mean that at any instant we can be sure in specifying their arrangement within the substance.

The third one was proposed, in 1906, by Walther Nernst, of the University of Berlin (for which he won the 1920 Nobel Prize in chemistry).

Physicists previously had assumed that, when cooled, molecules and atoms gradually slow down until, at absolute zero, they come to rest. But Quantum Mechanics does not allow that. The lowest energy available to an atom, called its ground state energy, is not zero. The associated with this state cannot be shared with other objects ( it cannot “flow”) or be interpreted as heat, so it does not count as disorderliness. Reasoning in this manner, Nernst reached at a new understanding of absolute zero: rather than the absence of motion, it indicates the absence of disorder, that means, a state of perfect order.

Surveying the specific heat –six year latter Nernst discovered a remarkable fact: During the approach toward absolute zero, or perfect order, each step is more difficult than the preceding one. Temperature decreases less with each successive removal of heat. Nernst proposed a stronger form of the third law: Absolute zero is unattainable.

In principle, according to the statistical nature of order, there is a small but finite probability that an object will reach a temperature of a billionth of a Kelvin, or even zero. This is the base of Gainesville physicists.