Related papers: Comments on Violations of the Second Law
Despite the importance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, it is not absolute. Statistical mechanics implies that, given sufficient time, systems near equilibrium will spontaneously fluctuate into lower-entropy states, locally reversing…
Skeptics of biological evolution often claim that evolution requires a decrease in entropy, giving rise to a conflict with the second law of thermodynamics. This argument is fallacious because it neglects the large increase in entropy…
In a previous work (M. Campisi. Stud. Hist. Phil. M. P. 36 (2005) 275-290) we have addressed the mechanical foundations of equilibrium thermodynamics on the basis of the Generalized Helmholtz Theorem. It was found that the volume entropy…
We develop non-equilibrium theory by using averages in time and space as a generalized way to upscale thermodynamics in non-ergodic systems. The approach offers a classical perspective on the energy dynamics in fluctuating systems. The rate…
We derive a generalization of the Second Law of Thermodynamics that uses Bayesian updates to explicitly incorporate the effects of a measurement of a system at some point in its evolution. By allowing an experimenter's knowledge to be…
The fluctuation theorem (FT), the first derived consequence of the {\it Chaotic Hypothesis} (CH) of ref. [GC1], can be considered as an extension to arbitrary forcing fields of the fluctuation dissipation theorem (FD) and the corresponding…
After presenting possible motives for fighting against the second law of thermodynamics, several attempts to beat this law are analyzed. The second law wins, but an interesting interpretation of it emerges. This interpretation uses the…
The quantum fluctuations of the entropy production for fermionic systems in the Landauer-Buttiker non-equilibrium steady state are investigated. The probability distribution, governing these fluctuations, is explicitly derived by means of…
We consider the basic, thermodynamic properties of an elementary micro-machine operating at colloidal length scales. In particular, we track and analyse the driven stochastic motion of a carefully designed micro-propeller rotating unevenly…
We show that for stochastic dynamical systems out of equilibrium the violation of the fluctuation-dissipation equality is bounded by a function of the entropy production. The result applies to a much wider situation than `near equilibrium',…
Fluctuation theorem is one of the major achievements in the field of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics during the past two decades. Steady-state fluctuation theorem of sample entropy production rate in terms of large deviation principle…
Without violating causality, we allow performing measurements in time reverse process of a feedback manipulated stochastic system. As a result we come across an entropy production due to the measurement process. This entropy production, in…
Fluctuation theorems impose fundamental bounds in the statistics of the entropy production, with the second law of thermodynamics being the most famous. Using information theory, we quantify the information of entropy production and find an…
The fluctuation theorems have remained one of the cornerstones in the study of systems that are driven far out of equilibrium, and they provide strong constraints on the fraction of trajectories that behave atypically in light of the second…
Fluctuation Theorems are statements about the entropy of systems far from thermal equilibrium. In this Letter relativistic Fluctuation Theorems for Brownian motion are presented and proven. Though there is a known discretization dilemma…
Strong violations of existing fluctuation theorems may arise in nonequilibrium steady states characterized by distributions with power-law tails. The ratio of the probabilities of positive and negative fluctuations of equal magnitude…
The essential postulates of classical thermodynamics are formulated, from which the second law is deduced as the principle of increase of entropy in irreversible adiabatic processes that take one equilibrium state to another. The entropy…
Fluctuation theorems are a generalization of thermodynamics on small scales and provide the tools to characterize the fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities in non-equilibrium nanoscale systems. They are particularly important for…
This article is a short version of a longer article to appear in Physics Reports (cond-mat/9708200). The essential postulates of classical thermodynamics are formulated, from which the second law is deduced as the principle of increase of…
The work fluctuations of an oscillator in contact with a thermostat and driven out of equilibrium by an external force are studied experimentally and theoretically within the context of Fluctuation Theorems (FTs). The oscillator dynamics is…