Related papers: Confusion in Thermodynamics
We provide a proof of the necessary and sufficient condition on the profile of the temperature, chemical potential, and angular velocity for a charged perfect fluid in dynamic equilibrium to be in thermodynamic equilibrium not only in fixed…
We study the notion of work fluctuations in quantum field theory, highlighting that the most common definitions used in finite-dimensional quantum systems cannot be applied to quantum field theory (QFT). Then we propose work distributions…
Trying to identify the entropy production within a cell has been part of debates and studies in the last century. First the idea was to make a resemblance of a cell with a Carnot engine, which is the most thermodynamically perfect machine.…
We revisit the concavity property of the thermodynamic entropy in order to formulate a general proof of the minimum energy principle as well as of other equivalent extremum principles that are valid for thermodynamic potentials and…
Building on parallels between geometric quantum mechanics and classical mechanics, we explore an alternative basis for quantum thermodynamics that exploits the differential geometry of the underlying state space. We develop both…
The microscopic explanation of entropy has been challenged from both experimental and theoretical point of view. The expression of entropy is derived from the first law of thermodynamics indicating that entropy or the second law of…
How should one define thermodynamic quantities (internal energy, work, heat, etc.) for quantum systems coupled to their environments strongly? We examine three (classically equivalent) definitions of a quantum system's internal energy under…
Energy has no definition, except that given by a conservation principle which essentially amounts to defining it as the elements of an open list of unknown cardinality. Entropy, identified by Shannon as information we lack, has too many…
Although information theory resolves inconsistencies (known under the form of famous enigmas) of the traditional approach of thermostatistics, its place in the corresponding literature is not what it deserves. This article supports the idea…
The second law of thermodynamics, which deals with irreversibility and makes the theory so special, is usually considered empirical. The definition of equilibrium as an attractor, on the other hand, requires a postulate. This article shows…
In classical phenomenological thermodynamics the first and second laws can be regarded as independent statements. Statistical mechanics provides a microscopic substratum that explains thermodynamics in probabilistic terms via a microstate…
We give meaning to the first and second laws of thermodynamics in case of mesoscopic out-of-equilibrium systems which are driven by diffusion processes. The notion of the entropy production is analyzed. The role of the Helmholtz extremum…
The aim of this article is to analyze the relation between the second law of thermodynamics and the so-called arrow of time. For this purpose, a number of different aspects in this arrow of time are distinguished, in particular those of…
Thermodynamics originated in the need to understand novel technologies developed by the Industrial Revolution. However, over the centuries the description of engines, refrigerators, thermal accelerators, and heaters has become so abstract…
It is argued the the idea of a single temperature-like variable, introduced in [1], which enters a generalized second law for Markovian open system in non-equilibrium environment is not sufficient for a consistent and useful thermodynamic…
Bohr and Heisenberg suggested that the thermodynamical quantities of temperature and energy are complementary in the same way as position and momentum in quantum mechanics. Roughly speaking, their idea was that a definite temperature can be…
From a new rigorous formulation of the general axiomatic foundations of thermodynamics we derive an operational definition of entropy that responds to the emergent need in many technological frameworks to understand and deploy thermodynamic…
The notion of mean temperature is crucial for a number of fields including climate science, fluid dynamics and biophysics. However, so far its correct thermodynamic foundation is lacking or even believed to be impossible. A physically…
The reversibility and recurrence paradoxes are key issues that have been left unsolved in researches on the foundation of thermodynamics since the 19th century. This article shows that (1) the reversibility paradox can be overcome if we pay…
Quantum thermodynamics investigates how robust the second law of thermodynamics serves as the unique fundamental law in the small quantum world. To tackle this problem, the quantum coherence constitutes a major difficulty of investigations,…