The ground state of a quantum/classical mechanical system is its lowest-energy state; the energy of the ground state is known as the zero-point energy of the system. When a quantum system has infinite possible ground states, it is gapless with massless modes; if a quantum system has finite ground states, it is known as gapped and potentially topologically ordered. The ground state of a quantum field theory is usually called the vacuum state or the vacuum.
The ground state of a quantum/classical mechanical system is its lowest-energy state; the energy of the ground state is known as the zero-point energy of the system.
If more than one ground state exists, they are said to be degenerate. Many systems have degenerate ground states. Degeneracy occurs whenever there exists a unitary operator which acts non-trivially on a ground state and commutes with the Hamiltonian of the system.
When a quantum system has infinite possible ground states, it is gapless with massless modes; if a quantum system has finite ground states, it is known as gapped and potentially topologically ordered. The ground state of a quantum field theory is usually called the vacuum state or the vacuum.
An excited state is any state with energy greater than the ground state.
According to the third law of thermodynamics, a system at absolute zero temperature exists in its ground state; thus, its entropy is determined by the degeneracy of the ground state. Many systems, such as a perfect crystal lattice, have a unique ground state and therefore have zero entropy at absolute zero. (It is also possible for the highest excited state to have absolute zero temperature for systems that exhibit negative temperature.)
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