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Summary: realizing such unusual thermalization is con-
fining the light in one direction, so that every
photon is forced to have a frequency at least as
high as that of a standing wave. Because the
separation between the mirrors is only a few
micrometres,thisminimumphotonfrequency
is high -- crucially, much higher than the
frequency corresponding to the temperature
of the dye.
This large frequency difference makes the
energy budget of the system resemble the
financesofapeculiarcommercialfirmthatsells
both skateboards and satellites. In the firm's
ledgers, the billions column and the millions
column must always be balanced separately,
because the total volume of the skateboard
business never amounts to a single satellite. In
the Weitz group's system of dye and light, the
thermal energy and the energy of excitations
at the standing-wave frequency are similarly
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