On the existence of negative pressure states

Although pressure is usually believed to be an always positive quantity, negative pressure states exists since the beginning of the Universe and they have been studied since Huygens. These states are metastable and therefore mistakenly thrown out from calculations and neglected in experiments as non‐existing or unaccessible ones although they exist and they can be accessed. Recent theories suggest that normal materials (without any special structure) under negative pressure can be auxetic. In this short review paper we would like to demonstrate the existence of negative pressure states and discuss the limiting negative pressure for condensed matters (liquids and solids). (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)