Related papers: Temperature as Joules per Bit
The equivalence of 1 bit of information to entropy was given by Landauer in 1961 as kln2, k the Boltzmann constant. Erasing information implies heat dissipation and the energy of 1 bit would then be (the Landauers limit) kT ln 2, T being…
Information theory this century has clarified the 19th century work of Gibbs, and has shown that natural units for temperature kT, defined via 1/T=dS/dE, are energy per nat of information uncertainty. This means that (for any system) the…
Temperature scale and the Boltzmann constant: The newest system of units is based on a compatible set of natural constants with fixed values. An example is the Boltzmann constant k which defines the thermal energy content kT. To express the…
This paper is a natural continuation of a previous one by the author, which was concerned with the foundations of statistical thermodynamics far from equilibrium. One of the problems left open in that paper was the correct definition of…
Measures of temperature that center around human experience get lots of use. Of course thermal physics insights of the last century have shown that reciprocal temperature (1/kT) has applications that temperature addresses less well. In…
The proper definition of entropy is fundamental to the relationship between statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. It also plays a major role in the recent debate about the validity of the concept of negative temperature. In this paper,…
A microscopic understanding of the thermodynamic entropy in quantum systems has been a mystery ever since the invention of quantum mechanics. In classical physics, this entropy is believed to be the logarithm of the volume of phase space…
Experimental and theoretical results about entropy limits for macroscopic and single-particle systems are reviewed. It is clarified when it is possible to speak about a quantum of entropy, given by the Boltzmann constant k, and about a…
The unit of thermodynamic temperature, the kelvin, will be redefined in 2018 by fixing the value of the Boltzmann constant, k. The present CODATA recommended value of k is determined predominantly by acoustic gas-thermometry results. To…
The fundamental assumption of statistical mechanics is that the system is equally likely in any of the accessible microstates. Based on this assumption, the Boltzmann distribution is derived and the full theory of statistical thermodynamics…
There are three ways to conceptualize entropy: entropy as an extensive thermodynamic quantity of physical systems (Clausius, Boltzmann, Gibbs), entropy as a measure for information production of ergodic sources (Shannon), and entropy as a…
The problem of temperature in nonextensive statistical mechanics is studied. Considering the first law of thermodynamics and a "quasi-reversible process", it is shown that the Tsallis entropy becomes the Clausius entropy if the inverse of…
We demonstrate that Shannon's information entropy and the thermodynamic entropy of Boltzmann and Gibbs are quantitatively equivalent for real condensed-matter systems. By interpreting atomic configurations as information sources, we compute…
The meaning and evolution of the notion of "temperature" (which is a key concept for the condensed and gaseous matter theories) are addressed from the different points of view. The concept of temperature turns out to be much more…
Comparison of the thermodynamic entropy with Boltzmann's principle shows that under conditions of constant volume the total number of arrangements in simple thermodynamic systems with temperature-independent heat capacities is TC/k. A…
Entropy and temperature of a system in a coherent state are naturally defined on a base of a density matrix of the system. As an example, entropy and temperature are evaluated for coherent states of a harmonic oscillator and quantum field…
In thermodynamics one considers thermal systems and the maximization of entropy subject to the conservation of energy. A consequence is Landauer's erasure principle, which states that the erasure of 1 bit of information requires a minimum…
A communication theory for a transmitter broadcasting to many receivers is presented. In this case energetic considerations cannot be neglected as in Shannon theory. It is shown that, when energy is assigned to the information bit,…
The temperature of a mechanical body has a kinetic interpretation: it describes the relative motion of particles within the body. Since the relative velocity of two particles is a Lorentz invariant, so is the temperature. In statistical…
The science of thermodynamics was put together in the Nineteenth Century to describe large systems in equilibrium. One part of thermodynamics defines entropy for equilibrium systems and demands an ever-increasing entropy for non-equilibrium…