Related papers: Evolution and Earth's Entropy
We show that the entropy production in small open systems coupled to environments made of extended baths is predominantly caused by the displacement of the environment from equilibrium rather than, as often assumed, the mutual information…
Entropy arises in strong interactions by a dynamical separation of ``partons'' from unobservable ``environment'' modes due to confinement. For interacting scalar fields we calculate the statistical entropy of the observable subsystem.…
Human activity has an enormous impact on Earth, changing organisms, environments and landscapes, leading to the decline of original ecosystems and irreversible changes that create new combinations of living beings and materials. As a…
We reconsider the evolution of strongly degenerate neutrinos in the early universe. Our chief concern is the validity of the entropy conservation after the neutrino annihilation process has frozen out (so that the establishment of chemical…
The Anthropocene is a proposed time subdivision of the earth's history correlated to the strong human perturbation of the ecosystem. Much debate is ongoing about what date should be considered as the start of the Anthropocene, but much less…
A conflict exists between field biologists and physiologists ("functional biologists" or "evolutionary ecologists") on the one hand and those working in molecular evolution ("evolutionary biologists" or "population geneticists") on the…
Archean atmospheric evolution is the transition from an abiological atmosphere, to an atmosphere for which the composition and therefore climate is highly altered by life. We review the key processes and transitions in this evolution.
Galaxy evolution depends strongly on the environment. Dynamical interactions and subsequent evolution make galaxies more concentrated, with higher surface densities, and also trigger star-formation, which consumes the available cold gas.…
We have found an empirical law for the variation of the length of the Earth's day with geologic time employing Wells's data. We attribute the lengthening of the Earth's day to the present cosmic expansion of the Universe. The prediction of…
There is ongoing interest in the global entropy production rate as a climate diagnostic and predictor, but progress has been limited by ambiguities in its definition; different conceptual boundaries of the climate system give rise to…
Entropy generation in a chemical reaction is analyzed without using the general formalism of non-equilibrium thermodynamics at a level adequate for advanced undergraduates. In a first approach to the problem, the phenomenological kinetic…
Spectroscopic observations of distant cosmological sources continue to exhibit a surprising result; that the chemical abundance of the universe seems to be approximately solar for the observed sources at redshifts of 5, 6, and even 7, even…
The rising complexity of our terrestrial surrounding is an empirical fact. Details of this process evaded description in terms of physics for long time attracting attention and creating myriad of ideas including non-scientific ones. In this…
Planets with masses between 0.1 - 10 M_earth are believed to host dense atmospheres. These atmospheres can play an important role on the planet's spin evolution, since thermal atmospheric tides, driven by the host star, may counterbalance…
The Earth's equilibrium climate sensitivity has received much attention because of its relevance and importance for global warming policymaking. This paper focuses on the Earth's \emph{thermal inertia time scale} which has received…
It has been observed in both natural and man-made materials that volume sometimes decreases with increasing temperature. Though mechanistic understanding has been gained for some individual materials, a general answer to the question "Why…
We discuss the evolution of radiation and Bekenstein-Hawking entropies in expanding isotropic universes. We establish a general relation which shows why it is inevitable that there is currently a huge difference in the numerical values of…
Changes that occur on our planet can be tracked back to one of two energy sources: the sun and the Earth's internal energy. The motion of tectonic plates, volcanism, mountain building and the reshaping of our planet's surface over geologic…
Mars, Venus and Earth are expected to have started in a hot molten state. Here, we discuss how these three terrestrial planets diverged in their evolution and what mechanisms could be the cause. We discuss that early-on after magma ocean…
Based on Lorentz and Levi-Civita's conservation laws, it can be shown that the energy of the matter field in the universe might originate from the gravitational field as a result of the latter field's energy decrease and the total entropy…