Related papers: Confusion in Thermodynamics
It is generally admitted in thermodynamics that, for a given change in volume, the work done by a system is greater in conditions of reversibility than in conditions of irreversibility. If the basic conventions of physics are strictly…
We propose an extension of the original thought experiment proposed by Geroch, which sparked much of the actual debate and interest on black hole thermodynamics, and show that the generalized second law of thermodynamics is in compliance…
Thermodynamics is accepted as a universal truth, encompassing all macroscopic objects. Therefore, it is surprising to find that, within our current understanding, the photovoltaic effect has so far eluded the first and second laws of…
In the scientific and engineering literature, the second law of thermodynamics is expressed in terms of the behavior of entropy in reversible and irreversible processes. According to the prevailing statistical mechanics interpretation the…
Thermodynamics is the phenomenological theory of heat and work. Here we analyze to what extent quantum thermodynamic relations are immune to the underlying mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics. As a main result, we show that the…
Comparing black hole thermodynamics with the axiomatic formulation of thermodynamics for laboratory systems, it is found that some basic assumptions (required by experimental facts) in laboratory thermodynamics do not hold for black hole…
One of the goals that physicists have been pursuing is to get the same explanation from different angles for the same phenomenon, so as to realize the unity of basic physical laws. Geometry, classical mechanics and classical thermodynamics…
The puzzle of the thermodynamic arrow of time reduces to the question of how the universe could have had lower entropy in the past. I show that no special entropy lowering mechanism (or fluctuation) is necessary. As a consequence of…
During the past 30 years, research in general relativity has brought to light strong hints of a very deep and fundamental relationship between gravitation, thermodynamics, and quantum theory. The most striking indication of such a…
In this paper, heat and Carnot's working substance are defined respectively by the equations $E=3pV$ and $E=3/2pV$, relating the energy $E$, the pressure $p$ and the volume $V$ of these two corpuscular systems. The thermodynamic-kinetic…
The Dulong-Petit limiting law for the specific heats of solids, one of the first general results in thermodynamics, has provided Mendeleev with a powerful tool for devising the periodic table and gave an important support to Boltzmann's…
We consider a Brownian particle in harmonic confinement of stiffness $k$, in one dimension in the underdamped regime. The whole setup is immersed in a heat bath at temperature $T$. The center of harmonic trap is dragged under any arbitrary…
Accurately describing work extraction from a quantum system is a central objective for the extension of thermodynamics to individual quantum systems. The concepts of work and heat are surprisingly subtle when generalizations are made to…
The status of the sociophysics is discussed as placed between the physics and the sociology. In particular we ask if the second law of thermodynamics can be useful in social sciences.
This Colloquium is a fast journey through the build-up of key thermodynamical concepts, i.e. work, heat and irreversibility -- and how they relate to information. Born at the time of industrial revolution to optimize the exploitation of…
We overview the notion of entropy in thermodynamics. We start from the smooth case using differential forms on the manifold, which is the natural language for thermodynamics. Then the axiomatic definition of entropy as ordering on a set…
How to rigorously define thermodynamic quantities such as heat, work, and internal energy in open quantum systems driven far from equilibrium remains a significant open question in quantum thermodynamics. Heat is a quantity whose…
The formalism used in describing the thermodynamics of abrupt (or first-order) phase transitions is reviewed as an application of maximum entropy inference. In this treatment, we show that the concepts of transition temperature, latent heat…
We study two small quantum systems coupled to the same reservoir which is in thermal equilibrium. By studying the particle density and the energy density in the two systems before and after they contact each other, we find that the two…
The second law of thermodynamics - the usual statement of the arrow of time - has been called the most fundamental law of physics. It is thus difficult to conceive that a single dynamical system could contain subsystems, in significant…