On the Sign of Local Temperature in Molecules

Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, 556 Morris Ave, Summit, NJ 07901, USA.Tel. +1-908-277-7129, Fax +1-908-277-4910, E-mail: Istvan.Kolossvary@Pharma.Novartis.comReceived: 26 February 1999 / Accepted: 24 March 1999 / Published: 26 March 1999Abstract Lin proposed earlier based on qualitative considerations that electronic motionwas associated with negative absolute temperature. Here, a local temperature formula isproposed for electronic motion in atoms and molecules, which allows the existence ofnegative absolute temperature in a local sense in thermodynamic equilibrium. The proposedtemperature formula is a function of total energy density