English

A graph of pressure as a function of volume, for an adiabatic process

Adjective

adiabatic ‎(not comparable)

1. (physics, thermodynamics, of a process) That occurs without gain or loss of heat (and thus with no change in entropy, in the quasistatic approximation).
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 737:

     Talk of dynamic compression and adiabatic gradients didn't carry as much weight as the certainty of its conscious intent.

2. (physics, quantum mechanics, of a process) That involves the slow change of the Hamiltonian of a system from its initial value to a final value.
   • 1961, Albert Messiah, Quantum Mechanics, Volume II, page 740,

     In this section we examine the limiting cases when T is very small (sudden change) and very large (adiabatic change).

Antonyms

• (thermodynamics): diabatic
• (quantum mechanics): nonadiabatic

Translations

Derived terms