adiabatic

American  

[ad-ee-uh-bat-ik, ey-dahy-uh-] / ˌæd i əˈbæt ɪk, ˌeɪ daɪ ə- /

adjective

1. occurring without gain or loss of heat (opposed to diabatic).

   an adiabatic process.

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adiabatic British  

/ ˌædɪəˈbætɪk, ˌeɪ- /

adjective

1. (of a thermodynamic process) taking place without loss or gain of heat

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noun

1. a curve or surface on a graph representing the changes in two or more characteristics (such as pressure and volume) of a system undergoing an adiabatic process

adiabatic Scientific  

/ ăd′ē-ə-băt′ĭk /

1. Occurring without gain or loss of heat. When a gas is compressed under adiabatic conditions, its pressure increases and its temperature rises without the gain or loss of any heat. Conversely, when a gas expands under adiabatic conditions, its pressure and temperature both decrease without the gain or loss of heat. The adiabatic cooling of air as it rises in the atmosphere is the main cause of cloud formation.

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Other Word Forms

• adiabatically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of adiabatic

1875–80; < Greek adiábat ( os ) incapable of being crossed ( a- a- ⁶ + dia- dia- + ba- (stem of baínein to cross) + -tos verbal adjective suffix) + -ic; cf. diabatic

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

adiabatic

According to the target evolution of spin qubits, this group's experiment adds another effective driving to suppress diabatic errors, which guarantees a fast and nearly ideal adiabatic evolution.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2024

In contrast, adiabatic evolution can always keep the quantum system in its eigenstate.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2024

According to their estimation, the acceleration of adiabatic passage would be much better in Si or Ge quantum dots with less nuclear spin noise.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2024

The best heat pump uses adiabatic and isothermal processes, since, in theory, there would be no dissipative processes to reduce the heat transfer to the hot reservoir.

From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015

The adiabatic cooling of rising currents of air is another reason for the rapid decrease of temperature with height up to a mile or more.

From Sounding the Ocean of Air by A. Lawrence Rotch