Related papers: Singular zero-temperature system
For a thermodynamic system obeying both the equipartition theorem in high temperature and the third law in low temperature, the curve showing relationship between the specific heat and the temperature has two common behaviors:\ it…
The third law of thermodynamics, also known as the Nernst unattainability principle, puts a fundamental bound on how close a system, whether classical or quantum, can be cooled to a temperature near to absolute zero. On the other hand, a…
Standard statistical thermodynamic views of temperature fluctuations predict a magnitude $(\sqrt{<(\Delta T)^2>}/T)\approx\sqrt{(k_B/C)}$ for a system with heat capacity $C$. The extent to which low temperatures can be well defined is…
We discuss a simple toy model which allows, in a natural way, for deriving central facts from thermodynamics such as its fundamental laws, including Carnot's version of the second principle. Our viewpoint represents thermodynamic systems as…
Thermodynamics, the branch of physics concerned with the description of macroscopic bodies, heat exchange and the conversion of different forms of energy is based on four laws: the zeroth law, which states that bodies in thermal contact…
We consider open quantum systems consisting of a finite system of independent fermions with arbitrary Hamiltonian coupled to one or more equilibrium fermion reservoirs (which need not be in equilibrium with each other). A strong form of the…
Landauer's bound relates changes in the entropy of a system with the inevitable dissipation of heat to the environment. The bound, however, becomes trivial in the limit of zero temperature. Here we show that it is possible to derive a…
Recent progress in the synthesis and processing of nano-structured materials and systems calls for an improved understanding of thermal properties on small length scales. In this context, the question whether thermodynamics and, in…
Absolute temperature, the fundamental temperature scale in thermodynamics, is usually bound to be positive. Under special conditions, however, negative temperatures - where high-energy states are more occupied than low-energy states - are…
We analyse the thermodynamic properties of a generalised Dicke model, i.e. a collection of three-level systems interacting with two bosonic modes. We show that at finite temperatures the system undergoes first-order phase transitions only,…
It is now widely accepted that the concept of negative absolute temperature is real one and not just theoretical curiosity. In this brief report, by combining the formalism used in the statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, we have…
The zeroth law of thermodynamics involves a transitivity relation (pairwise between three objects) expressed either in terms of `equal temperature' (ET), or `in equilibrium' (EQ) conditions. In conventional thermodynamics conditional on…
We consider a question motivated by the third law of thermodynamics: can there be a local temperature arbitrarily close to absolute zero in a nonequilibrium quantum system? We consider nanoscale quantum conductors with the source reservoir…
Two different physical systems are said to be thermodynamically equiv- alent if one of the thermodynamic potentials of the first system is pro- portional to the corresponding potential of the second system after expressing the state…
It is shown that there is no proof of negativity of specific heat of the system placed in thermostat. It is proved that for the system of particles placed in the thermostat and interacting with each other via uniform potential energy the…
Thermodynamics dictates that the specific heat of a system is strictly non-negative. However, in finite classical systems there are well known theoretical and experimental cases where this rule is violated, in particular finite atomic…
The relationship between the vanishing of the heat capacities as $T\to0^+$ and the thermal stability is examined. The heat capacities vanish as fast as or faster than $T$ as $T\to0^+$ for states at the phase space boundary ($T=0$) to…
The model of hypothetical superconductivity, where the energy gap asymptotically approaches zero as temperature increases, has been proposed. Formally the critical temperature of such a superconductor is equal to infinity. For practical…
We have developed a theoretical formalism to introduce temperature as a parameter into the framework of non-relativistic quantum mechanics using the laws of classical thermodynamics and the canonical ensemble scheme of statistical…
Thermalization of isolated quantum systems has been studied intensively in recent years and significant progresses have been achieved. Here, we study thermalization of small quantum systems that interact with large chaotic environments…