What gives a better intuition is thinking in inverse temperature.
Regular temperature is, ‘how weakly is this thing trying to grab more energy so as to increase its entropy’.
Inverse temperature is ‘how strongly...’ and when that gets down to 0, it’s natural to see it continue on into negatives, where it’s trying to shed energy to increase its entropy.
Why did you only show the E(T) function for positive temperatures?
This is a good point. The negative side gives good intuition for the “negative temperatures are hotter than any positive temperature” argument.
What gives a better intuition is thinking in inverse temperature.
Regular temperature is, ‘how weakly is this thing trying to grab more energy so as to increase its entropy’.
Inverse temperature is ‘how strongly...’ and when that gets down to 0, it’s natural to see it continue on into negatives, where it’s trying to shed energy to increase its entropy.
No reason. Fixed.