Related papers: Is thermodynamics fundamental?
Classical thermodynamics is a theory based on coarse-graining, meaning that the thermodynamic variables arise from discarding information related to the microscopic features of the system at hand. In quantum mechanics, however, where one…
The general principles and logical structure of a thermodynamic formalism that incorporates strongly self-gravitating systems are presented. This framework generalizes and simplifies the formulation of thermodynamics developed by Callen.…
Our previous works have shown the statistical mechanics of self-gravitating system. In this paper, we will show its thermodynamics and compare our results with observations and simulations. We propose that our statistical mechanics can be…
Despite its enormous empirical success, the formalism of quantum theory still raises fundamental questions: why is nature described in terms of complex Hilbert spaces, and what modifications of it could we reasonably expect to find in some…
Dunkel and Hilbert, "Consistent thermostatistics forbids negative absolute temperatures," Nature Physics, {\bf 10}, 67 (2014), and Hilbert, H\"anggi, and Dunkel, "Thermodynamic laws in isolated systems," Phys. Rev. E {\bf 90}, 062116 (2014)…
In classical Hamiltonian theories, entropy may be understood either as a statistical property of canonical systems, or as a mechanical property, that is, as a monotonic function of the phase space along trajectories. In classical mechanics,…
Logical and mathematical aspects of the basic concepts of thermodynamics are considered.
The minimal set of thermodynamic control parameters consists of a statistical (thermal) and a mechanical one. These suffice to introduce all the pertinent thermodynamic variables; thermodynamic processes can then be defined as paths on this…
Quantum thermodynamics is an emerging research field aiming to extend standard thermodynamics and non-equilibrium statistical physics to ensembles of sizes well below the thermodynamic limit, in non-equilibrium situations, and with the full…
The unification of gravity with the three other forces has been an important goal of physics for some time now, because a quantum theory of gravity is necessary to explain the universe at its earliest moments. Its pursuit has largely…
We reconsider the basic building blocks of classical phenomenological thermodynamics. While doing so we show that the zeroth law is a redundant postulate for the theory by deriving it from the first and the second laws. This is in stark…
Thermodynamics (in concert with its sister discipline, statistical physics) can be regarded as a data reduction scheme based on partitioning a total system into a subsystem and a bath that weakly interact with each other. The ubiquity and…
Thermodynamics is usually developed starting from entropy and the maximum entropy principle. We investigate here to what extent one can replace entropy with relative entropy which has several advantages, for example in the context of local…
We acuminate the idea of a final theory of physics in order to analyze its logical implications and consequences. It is argued that the rationale of a final theory is the principle of sufficient reason. This implies that a final theory of…
Temperature in a simple thermodynamical system is not limited from above. It is also widely believed that it does not make sense talking about temperatures higher than the Planck temperature in the absence of the full theory of quantum…
The postulational basis of classical thermodynamics has been expanded to incorporate equilibrium fluctuations. The main additional elements of the proposed thermodynamic theory are the concept of quasi-equilibrium states, a definition of…
We have known for more than thirty years that black holes behave as thermodynamic systems, radiating as black bodies with characteristic temperatures and entropies. This behavior is not only interesting in its own right; it could also,…
In the last years new interdisciplinary approaches to economics and social science have been developed. A Thermodynamic approach to socio-economics has brought to a new interdisciplinary scientific field called econophysics. Why…
This pedagogical comment highlights three misconceptions concerning the usefulness of the concept of negative temperature; being derived from the usual, often termed Boltzmann, definition of entropy. First, both the Boltzmann and Gibbs…
Thermodynamics is a macroscopic physical theory whose two very general laws are independent of any underlying dynamical laws and structures. Nevertheless, its generality enables us to understand a broad spectrum of phenomena in physics,…