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Sasha
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Did NIST fudge this news story about absolute zero?

"The new technique theoretically could be used to cool objects to absolute zero, the temperature at which matter is devoid of nearly all energy and motion, NIST scientists said."

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2017/01/nist-physicists-squeeze-light-cool-microscopic-drum-below-quantum-limit

I'm not sure that's exactly what the NIST scientists said, nor what they meant. I'm very suspicious of anyone who claims to be even theoretically capable of reducing a mechanical system to absolute zero.

I don't have access to the full publication, but here is a link to the article in Nature:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v541/n7636/full/nature20604.html

Can someone with access to the actual article in Nature clarify whether the news article at NIST was accurately reporting on the content of the Nature article regarding achieving absolute zero? The abstract instead references cooling "arbitrarily close to the motional ground state".

I'm not looking for a debate about whether or not reaching absolute zero is possible, nor a discussion about the discrepancies in definitions of absolute zero. I just want someone to clear up the probable discrepancy between what NIST wrote and what Nature published.

Sasha
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