GROUND STATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ground state mean? 

• GROUND STATE (noun)
  The noun GROUND STATE has 1 sense:

1. (physics) the lowest energy state of an atom or other particle

  Familiarity information: GROUND STATE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GROUND STATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(physics) the lowest energy state of an atom or other particle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("ground state" is a kind of...):

state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)

Domain category:

natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)

 Context examples 

Upon return to ground state, the absorbed energy results in emission of longer wavelength radiation and decreased skin penetration of radiation which reduces the risk of DNA damage.

(Oxybenzone, NCI Thesaurus)

The addition of energy to a system, thereby transferring it from its ground state to an excited state.

(Excitation, NCI Thesaurus)

An analytical method that utilizes ultraviolet light to excite the sample and detects the fluorescence emitted during the return of the sample to its ground state.

(Fluorimetry, NCI Thesaurus)

The team found that the predominant form of Env is the closed or ground state.

(The Structure and Dynamics of HIV Surface Spikes, NIH)

A type of atomic spectroscopy capable of qualitatively or quantitatively determining certain cations (particularly Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ca, Ba, Cu) by utilizing a low temperature flame capable of exciting a valence electron to an upper energy state which emits light at a wavelength unique to each cation as the electron returns to its ground state.

(Flame Photometry, NCI Thesaurus)

When broadly neutralizing antibodies and entry-inhibiting drugs bind to HIV, they often stabilize Env in this ground state and thereby prevent the virus from infecting a cell.

(The Structure and Dynamics of HIV Surface Spikes, NIH)