Thermal fluctuations
![Atomic diffusion on the surface of a crystal. The shaking of the atoms is an example of thermal fluctuations. Likewise, thermal fluctuations provide the energy necessary for the atoms to occasionally hop from one site to a neighboring one. For simplicity, the thermal fluctuations of the blue atoms are not shown.](/Images/godic/202502/16/Chemical_surface_diffusion_slow2408.gif")
In statistical mechanics, thermal fluctuations are random deviations of a system from its average state, that occur in a system at equilibrium. All thermal fluctuations become larger and more frequent as the temperature increases, and likewise they decrease as temperature approaches absolute zero.