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Related papers: The Enigma of Entropy

200 papers

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…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 A. Plastino , E. M. F. Curado

Entropy can signify different things: For instance, heat transfer in thermodynamics or a measure of information in data analysis. Many entropies have been introduced and it can be difficult to ascertain their different importance and…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2025-07-10 Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen , Piergiulio Tempesta

We propose an interpretation of the Newton's second law that is suggested by Galilean Relativity theory.

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2015-02-17 Ledo Stefanini , Giancarlo Reali

This short book is an elementary course on entropy, leading up to a calculation of the entropy of hydrogen gas at standard temperature and pressure. Topics covered include information, Shannon entropy and Gibbs entropy, the principle of…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-11-18 John C. Baez

Here we deconstruct, and then in a reasoned way reconstruct, the concept of "entropy of a system," paying particular attention to where the randomness may be coming from. We start with the core concept of entropy as a COUNT associated with…

General Physics · Physics 2017-05-10 Tommaso Toffoli

Many fruitful analogies have emerged between the theories of quantum entanglement and thermodynamics, motivating the pursuit of an axiomatic description of entanglement akin to the laws of thermodynamics. A long-standing open problem has…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-02-17 Ludovico Lami , Bartosz Regula

The experimental verification of the fluctuation theorem by Wang et al. is explained in terms of a simple Langevin dynamics. This implies that the entropy consuming trajectories found by Wang et al. are fluctuations generated by a random…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 S. Tasaki , I. Terasaki , T. Monnai

I present my recollections of what I used to find to be "one or two small points in thermodynamics", following Sommerfeld's famous quote, and review them on the light of present knowledge.

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-05-28 Walter F. Wreszinski

This work is to study the generalized second law (GSL) of thermodynamics in tachyon cosmology where the boundary of the universe is assumed to be enclosed by a dynamical apparent horizon. The model is constrained with the observational…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2016-06-08 H. Farajollahi , A. Ravanpak , H. Shojaie , M. Abolghasemi

At very small scales, thermodynamic energy exchanges like work and heat become comparable to thermal energy of the system, which leads to unusual phenomena like the transient violations of Second Law. We explore the generic characters of…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-06-25 Sourabh Lahiri , Arun M Jayannavar

A.E. Allahverdyan and Th. M. Nieuwenhuizen [1] in their paper "A mathematical theorem as a basis for the second law: Thomson's formulation applied to equilibriium" present a proof of the second law of thermodynamics based on quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Dan Solomon

For an isolated assembly that comprises a system and its surrounding reservoirs, the total entropy ($S_{a}$) always monotonically increases as time elapses. This phenomenon is known as the second law of thermodynamics ($S_{a}\geq0$). Here…

Computational Physics · Physics 2014-10-22 T. M. Shih , Z. J. Gao , H. Merlitz , L. Rondoni , P. J. Pagni , Z. Chen

One of the most intriguing features of string thermodynamics is thermal duality, which relates the physics at temperature T to the physics at inverse temperature 1/T. Unfortunately, the traditional definitions of thermodynamic quantities…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2007-05-23 Keith R. Dienes , Michael Lennek

First, Second and Combined Laws of Thermodynamics are revised in terms of entropy change, partial entropy, partial volume, and chemical potential.

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-06-03 Zi-Kui Liu

We study entanglement entropy for an excited state by making use of the proposed holographic description of the entanglement entropy. For a sufficiently small entangling region and with reasonable identifications we find an equation between…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2013-08-30 Mohsen Alishahiha , Davood Allahbakhshi , Ali Naseh

We give a review, in the style of an essay, of the author's 1998 matter-gravity entanglement hypothesis which, unlike the standard approach to entropy based on coarse-graining, offers a definition for the entropy of a closed system as a…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2016-02-26 Bernard S. Kay

A review is given on the thermodynamical structure of bipartite entanglement. By comparing it to the axiomatic formulation of thermodynamics presented by Giles it is shown that for finite dimensional systems the two theories are formally…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-04-11 Nikolaos K. Kollas

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…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2015-05-30 Anthony Aguirre , Sean M. Carroll , Matthew C. Johnson

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…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2008-03-09 Michele Campisi

A version of the second law of thermodynamics states that one cannot lower the energy of an isolated system by a cyclic operation. We prove this law without introducing statistical ensembles and by resorting only to quantum mechanics. We…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2013-04-02 Sheldon Goldstein , Takashi Hara , Hal Tasaki