superphoton

English

Alternative forms

• super-photon

Etymology

super- +‎ photon

Noun

superphoton (plural superphotons)

1. (rare, physics, figurative) A photonic Bose-Einstein condensate, comprised of thousands of photons sufficiently concentrated and cooled in an optical well.
   • 1966, Arthur Charles Clarke, Congressional Record 1966-08-01: Volume 112‎^[1], Superintendent of Government Documents, page 4060:

     However, according to the principles of the General Relativity Theory, Sanger’s superphoton man cannot materially exist by lives in a world which has no relation to ours.

   • 1987, Frank Wilczek, Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics‎^[2], Norton, →ISBN, page 201:

     Similar difficulties arise if instead of three “photons” we imagine a single “superphoton” that responds to the numerical sum of all the colour charges.

   • 1999, Helge Kragh, Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe‎^[3], Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 65:

     Without mentioning Lemaitre, Haldane pictured the universe as originating from one or a few such superphotons of almost infinite energy and sketched from this assumption the entire evolutionary history of matter and life.

Translations

photonic Bose-Einstein condensate

• Greek: υπερφωτόνιο (el) n (yperfotónio), φωτονικό συμπύκνωμα Bose-Einstein n (fotonikó sympýknoma Bose-Einstein)