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A fluid occupying a mechanically isolated vessel with walls kept at spatially non-uniform temperature is in the long run expected to reach the spatially inhomogeneous steady state. Irrespective of the initial conditions the velocity field…
After recalling the basic concepts of gravity as an emergent phenomenon, we analyze the recent derivation of Newton's law in terms of entropic force proposed by Verlinde. By reviewing some points of the procedure, we extend it to the case…
Active matter describes systems whose constituents convert energy from their surroundings into directed motion, such as bacteria or catalytic colloids. We establish a thermodynamic law for dilute suspensions of interacting active particles…
This article addresses the question of when physical laws and their consequences can be computed. If a physical system is capable of universal computation, then its energy gap can't be computed. At an even more fundamental level, the most…
Expected utility maximization problems in mathematical finance lead to a generalization of the classical definition of entropy. It is demonstrated that a necessary and sufficient condition for the second law of thermodynamics to operate is…
The essential postulates of classical thermodynamics are formulated, from which the second law is deduced as the principle of increase of entropy in irreversible adiabatic processes that take one equilibrium state to another. The entropy…
From thermodynamics point of view, in this era of aiming at energy conservation and sustainability, we need to develop more accurate ways to design thermal power, cooling and heat pump cycles. It has been the general practice in…
For over a decade, the hypercomputation movement has produced computational models that in theory solve the algorithmically unsolvable, but they are not physically realizable according to currently accepted physical theories. While…
Recent observations show that our universe is accelerating by dark energy, so it is important to investigate the thermodynamical properties of it. The Undulant Universe is a model with equation of state $\omega(a)=-\cos(b\ln a)$ for dark…
We make two remarks about the null-controllability of the heat equation with Dirichlet condition in unbounded domains. Firstly, we give a geometric necessary condition (for interior null-controllability in the Euclidean setting)which…
We demonstrate that the presence of entanglement in macroscopic bodies (e.g. solids) in thermodynamical equilibrium could be revealed by measuring heat-capacity. The idea is that if the system were in a separable state, then for certain…
An apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics occurs when an atom coupled to a zero-temperature bath, being necessarily in an excited state, is used to extract work from the bath. Here the fallacy is that it takes work to couple…
The Nernst formulation of the third law of ordinary thermodynamics (often referred to as the ``Nernst theorem'') asserts that the entropy, $S$, of a system must go to zero (or a ``universal constant'') as its temperature, $T$, goes to zero.…
In nature, everything occurs at finite temperature and quantum phase transitions (QPTs) cannot be an exception. Nevertheless, they are still mainly discussed and formulated at zero temperature. We show that the condensation QPTs recently…
We establish an operational theory of coherence (or of superposition) in quantum systems, by focusing on the optimal rate of performance of certain tasks. Namely, we introduce the two basic concepts - "coherence distillation" and "coherence…
We introduce a classical algorithm to approximate the free energy of local, translation-invariant, one-dimensional quantum systems in the thermodynamic limit of infinite chain size. While the ground state problem (i.e., the free energy at…
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…
A model computational quantum thermodynamic network is constructed with two variable temperature baths coupled by a linker system, with an asymmetry in the coupling of the linker to the two baths. It is found in computational simulations…
Uncertainty relations state that there exist certain incompatible measurements, to which the outcomes cannot be simultaneously predicted. While the exact incompatibility of quantum measurements dictated by such uncertainty relations can be…
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…