Related papers: The Enigma of Entropy
We investigate the laws of thermodynamics in an accelerating universe driven by dark energy with a time-dependent equation of state. In the case we consider that the physically relevant part of the Universe is that envelopped by the…
Time-asymmetric behavior as embodied in the second law of thermodynamics is observed in {\it individual macroscopic} systems. It can be understood as arising naturally from time-symmetric microscopic laws when account is taken of a) the…
Boltzmann's struggle with a derivation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics is sketched. So is his first derivation of the connection between entropy and probability in 1877. Planck's derivation and quantum mechanical modifications of…
The emergence of a direction of time in statistical mechanics from an underlying time-reversal-invariant dynamics is explained by examining a simple model. The manner in which time-reversal symmetry is preserved and the role of initial…
We give arguments for the existence of a thermodynamics of quantum complexity that includes a "Second Law of Complexity". To guide us, we derive a correspondence between the computational (circuit) complexity of a quantum system of $K$…
The present study is motivated by the study of reference [1], where the generalized second law of thermodynamics has been investigated for a flat FRW universe for two viable models of $f(T)$ gravity. In the present work, we have considered…
We review the present status of black hole thermodynamics. Our review includes discussion of classical black hole thermodynamics, Hawking radiation from black holes, the generalized second law, and the issue of entropy bounds. A brief…
I recall my 'matter-gravity entanglement hypothesis' and briefly review the evidence for it, based partly on its seeming ability to resolve a number of puzzles related to quantum black holes including the black hole information loss puzzle.…
We consider the entropy production of a strongly coupled bipartite system. The total entropy production can be partitioned into various components, which we use to define local versions of the Second Law that are valid without the usual…
The second law of ordinary thermodynamics and the second law of steady state thermodynamics, as proposed by Oono and Paniconi, are investigated from the microscopic point of view for the open quantum system. Based on the H-theorem of…
We analyze the temperature relaxation phenomena of systems in contact with a thermal reservoir that undergo a non-Markovian diffusion process. From a generalized Langevin equation, we show that the temperature is governed by a law of…
We discuss contributions to the thermopower in an electron fluid. A simple argument based on Newton's second law with the pressure gradient as the force suggests that the thermopower is given by a thermodynamic derivative, viz., the entropy…
A definition of the thermodynamic entropy based on the time-dependent probability distribution of the macroscopic variables is developed. When a constraint in a composite system is released, the probability distribution for the new…
We propose the use of a gravitational uncertainty principle for gravitation. We define the corresponding gravitational Planck's constant and the gravitational quantum of mass. We define entropy in terms of the quantum of gravity with the…
Based on recent data about the history of the Hubble factor, it is argued that the second law of thermodynamics holds at the largest scales accessible to observation. This is consistent with previous studies of the same question.
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…
Entropic Dynamics is a framework in which dynamical laws are derived as an application of entropic methods of inference. No underlying action principle is postulated. Instead, the dynamics is driven by entropy subject to the constraints…
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…
Thermodynamics allows the application of Statistical Mechanics to finite and even small systems. As surface effects cannot be scaled away, one has to be careful with the standard arguments of splitting a system into two or bringing two…
A pedagogical account of entropy and its history.