adiabatic

English [edit]

From Ancient Greek ἀδιάβατος (adiabatos, “impassible”), from ἀ (a, “not”) + διά (dia, “through”) + βατός (batos, “passable”), from βαίνειν (bainein, “to go”). See βαίνω (bainō).

adiabatic (not comparable)

(physics, thermodynamics, of a process) That occurs without gain or loss of heat {and thus with no change in entropy).
- 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.
(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).

occurring without gain or loss of heat