Researchers have defied accepted physics by heating a nanometer-thick sample of gold to an astonishing 19,000 kelvins without melting it. The feat, which has overturned 40 years of understanding about solid materials’ temperature limits, was achieved through “flash heating” using a laser in just 45 femtoseconds.
The results contradict theories that solid gold should have higher entropy than liquid gold at temperatures above its proposed limit. However, the researchers believe their findings suggest a new regime of superheating that cannot be explained by normal physical effects such as ionization and pressure.
“We were totally shocked when we saw how hot it actually got,” said Thomas White, a study team member from the University of Nevada, Reno. The discovery disproves past predictions and challenges our understanding of thermodynamics.
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physicists-blast-gold-to-astonishing-temperatures-overturning-40-years-of