Related papers: Reflections of Sadi Carnot
Thermodynamics is based on a coarse-grained approach, from which its fundamental variables emerge, effectively erasing the complicate details of the microscopic dynamics within a macroscopic system. The strength of Thermodynamics lies in…
According to the first and second laws of thermodynamics and the definitions of work and heat, microscopic expressions for the non-equilibrium entropy production have been achieved. Recently, a redefinition of heat has been presented in…
We illustrate recent results concerning the validity of the work fluctuation theorem in open quantum systems [M. Campisi, P. Talkner, and P. H\"{a}nggi, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 102}, 210401 (2009)], by applying them to a solvable model of an…
A heat engine operating in the one-shot finite-size regime, where systems composed of a small number of quantum particles interact with hot and cold baths and are restricted to one-shot measurements, delivers fluctuating work. Further,…
In a previous work (M. Campisi. Stud. Hist. Phil. M. P. 36 (2005) 275-290) we have addressed the mechanical foundations of equilibrium thermodynamics on the basis of the Generalized Helmholtz Theorem. It was found that the volume entropy…
We treat a quantum mechanical system with certain general properties which are expected to be common in macroscopic quantum systems. Starting from a PURE initial state (which may not describe an equilibrium) in which energy is mildly…
The fundamentals of a quantum heat engine are derived from first principles. The study is based on the equation of motion of a minimum set of operators which is then used to define the state of the system. The relation between the quantum…
The efficiency of macroscopic heat engines is restricted by the second law of thermodynamics. They can reach at most the efficiency of a Carnot engine. In contrast, heat currents in mesoscopic heat engines show fluctuations. Thus, there is…
The impossibility of separating into work and heat the energy transmitted between two subsystems through a movable piston is analyzed in this article. The process here described, although "quasi-static", is not reversible. It is shown that…
In recent years we have witnessed a concentrated effort to make sense of thermodynamics for small-scale systems. One of the main difficulties is to capture a suitable notion of work that models realistically the purpose of quantum machines,…
Thermodynamic entropy, as defined by Clausius, characterizes macroscopic observations of a system based on phenomenological quantities such as temperature and heat. In contrast, information-theoretic entropy, introduced by Shannon, is a…
We develop non-equilibrium theory by using averages in time and space as a generalized way to upscale thermodynamics in non-ergodic systems. The approach offers a classical perspective on the energy dynamics in fluctuating systems. The rate…
The Kelvin-Planck statement of the Second Law of Thermodynamics is a stricture on the nature of heat receipt by any body suffering a cyclic process. It makes no mention of temperature or of entropy. Beginning with a Kelvin-Planck statement…
In the early 1970s it is was realized that there is a striking formal analogy between the Laws of black-hole mechanics and the Laws of classical thermodynamics. Before the discovery of Hawking radiation, however, it was generally thought…
In this document we are interested in entropy. Entropy is multiple, the idea is to describe the definition proposed by the physicist Clausius. Indeed, Clausius exposes in 1865 the second principle of thermodynamics and also proposes the…
All current formulations of thermodynamics invoke some form of coarse-graining or ensembles as the supposed link between their own laws and the microscopic laws of motion. They deal only with ensemble-averages, expectation values,…
It is argued the the idea of a single temperature-like variable, introduced in [1], which enters a generalized second law for Markovian open system in non-equilibrium environment is not sufficient for a consistent and useful thermodynamic…
In our recent letter [1] we discussed that thermodynamics is violated in quantum Brownian motion beyond the weak coupling limit. In his comment, Tasaki [2] derives an inequality for the relative entropy and claims, without making any…
A suitable way of quantifying work for microscopic quantum systems has been constantly debated in the field of quantum thermodynamics. One natural approach is to measure the average increase in energy of an ancillary system, called the…
We determine the statistics of work in isothermal volume changes of a classical ideal gas consisting of a single particle. Combining our results with the findings of Lua and Grosberg [J. Chem. Phys. B 109, 6805 (2005)] on adiabatic…