ADIABATIC SPEEDING UP OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A CRITICAL FLUID – A QUALITATIVE DISCUSSION

The large compressibility of a critical fluid (e.g. a ‘gas-liquid’ system near its critical point), held to a fixed volume , can cause adiabatic heating (or cooling) that occurs on a time scale, which is much faster than the ordinary thermal diffusion time. Typically, the former is measured in seconds, whereas the later in hours. In this article, we discuss, atleast qualitatively, that as the fluid approaches its critical point, its compressibility becomes larger and as a consequence, the faster the fluid can respond. We also discuss the difficulty to solve the adiabatic thermal equation, particularly, in dimensions more than one.