microstate
nounEtymology From micro- + state.
1
A country that has a very small population and land area.
2
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics The specific detailed microscopic configuration of a system.
- However, the number of microstates in which the excess of molecules in one bulb over the number in the other bulb is sufficient to permit the measurement of a pressure difference is a quite discountably small fraction of the total number of microstates.1989, H. E. Avery, D. John Shaw, Physical Chemistry, page 33:
- Antonyms
- macrostate
- Derived terms
- microstate continuum