Related papers: Basic thermodynamics to save lives
Statistical thermodynamics has a universal appeal that extends beyond molecular systems, and yet, as its tools are being transplanted to fields outside physics, the fundamental question, \textit{what is thermodynamics?}, has remained…
Originally formulated for macroscopic machines, the laws of thermodynamics were recently shown to hold for quantum systems coupled to ideal sources of work (external classical fields) and heat (systems at equilibrium). Ongoing efforts have…
Energy is a complex idea that cuts across scientific disciplines. For life science students, an approach to energy that incorporates chemical bonds and chemical reactions is better equipped to meet the needs of life sciences students than a…
The steady states of two gases of hard spheres or disks separated by an adiabatic piston in presence of a temperature gradient are discussed. The temperature field is generated by two thermal walls at different temperatures, each of them in…
This activity has been developed as a resource for the "EU Space Awareness" educational programme. As part of the suite "Our Fragile Planet" together with the "Climate Box" it addresses aspects of weather phenomena, the Earth's climate and…
We describe a physics education activity for third-year Bachelor students, inspired by a humorous question about the Geneva water jet. The exercise engages students in key scientific practices: reformulating everyday questions in scientific…
According to conventional wisdom, a system placed in an environment with a different temperature tends to relax to the temperature of the latter, mediated by the flows of heat and/or matter that are set solely by the temperature difference.…
The meaning of temperature in nonequilibrium thermodynamics is considered by using a forced harmonic oscillator in a heat bath, where we have two effective temperatures for the position and the momentum, respectively. We invent a concrete…
Chemical processes in closed systems are poorly controllable since they always relax to equilibrium. Living systems avoid this fate and give rise to a much richer diversity of phenomena by operating under nonequilibrium conditions. Recent…
In a pioneering study experimental evidence was sought of thermosynthesis, a theoretical biological mechanism for free energy gain from thermal cycling that has been invoked as energy source for the origin of life. A PCR machine applied…
The understanding of complex and/or large vacuum systems operating at cryogenic temperatures requires a specific knowledge of the vacuum science at such temperatures. At room temperature, molecules with a low binding energy to a surface are…
Identifying and understanding student difficulties with physics content in a wide variety of topical areas is an active research area within the PER community. In many cases, physics topics appear multiple times in different contexts across…
This work assembles some basic theoretical elements on thermal equilibrium, stability conditions, and fluctuation theory in self-gravitating systems illustrated with a few examples. Thermodynamics deals with states that have settled down…
This study investigates a group of high school students in a physics classroom interacting with a computer simulation that simulates the electrostatic interaction as a hockey game, the Electric Field Hockey. The activity featured in this…
We set up a framework for quantum stochastic thermodynamics based solely on experimentally controllable, but otherwise arbitrary interventions at discrete times. Using standard assumptions about the system-bath dynamics and insights from…
Heat can flow from cold to hot at any phase separation. Therefore Lynden-Bell's gravo-thermal catastrophe must be reconsidered. The original objects of Thermodynamics, the separation of phases at first order phase transitions, like boiling…
A generalized multibaker map with periodic boundary conditions is shown to model boundary-driven transport, when the driving is applied by a ``perturbation'' of the dynamics localised in a macroscopically small region. In this case there…
In this note, we analyze the relationships that should govern the use of thermodynamics in fluid mechanics in a way that we believe is understandable to mathematicians. We also aim to better define the reasons why mechanics and…
One of the fundamental questions in the emerging field of quantum thermodynamics is the role played by coherence in energetic processes that occur at the quantum level. Here, we address this issue by investigating two different quantum…
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…