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Several comments are given to previous proofs of the generalised second law of thermodynamics: black hole entropy plus ordinary matter entropy never decreases for a thermally closed system. Arguments in favour of its truism are given in the…
A recently proposed quantum mechanical criterion `concavity of energy' for the second law of thermodynamics is studied also for classical particle systems confined in a bounded region by a potential with a time-dependent coupling constant.…
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,…
We have investigated the thermodynamical properties of dark energy. Assuming that the dark energy temperature $T\sim a^{-n}$ and considering that the volume of the Universe enveloped by the apparent horizon relates to the temperature, we…
The second law of thermodynamics states that for a thermally isolated system entropy never decreases. Most physical processes we observe in nature involve variations of macroscopic quantities over spatial and temporal scales much larger…
We consider a generalisation of thermodynamics that deals with multiple conserved quantities at the level of individual quantum systems. Each conserved quantity, which, importantly, need not commute with the rest, can be extracted and…
The validity of the Second Law of thermodynamics, indisputable in the macroscopic world, is challenged at the mesoscopic level: a mesoscopic isolated system, possessing spatial dimensions of the order of a few microns, is capable, as shown…
The local entropy of a nonequilibrium system of independent fermions is investigated, and analyzed in the context of the laws of thermodynamics. It is shown that the local temperature and chemical potential can only be expressed in terms of…
This article describes the third law of thermodynamics. This law is often poorly known and is often decried, or even considered optional and irrelevant to describe weather and climate phenomena. This, however, is inaccurate and contrary to…
We consider the entropy production of a strongly coupled bipartite system. The total entropy production can be partitioned into various components, which we use to define local versions of the Second Law that are valid without the usual…
In our derivation of the second law of thermodynamics from the relation of adiabatic accessibility of equilibrium states we stressed the importance of being able to scale a system's size without changing its intrinsic properties. This…
The second law of thermodynamics constitutes a fundamental principle of physics, precluding the existence of perpetual motion machines and providing a natural definition of the arrow of time. Its scope extends across virtually all areas of…
The second law of thermodynamics places a limitation into which states a system can evolve into. For systems in contact with a heat bath, it can be combined with the law of energy conservation, and it says that a system can only evolve into…
The method of maximum entropy (ME) is extended to address the following problem: Once one accepts that the ME distribution is to be preferred over all others, the question is to what extent are distributions with lower entropy supposed to…
This article presents a heuristic combination of the local and global formulations of the second law of thermodynamics that suggests the possibility of theoretical existence of thermodynamics processes with positive and negative entropy…
In quantum statistical mechanics, equilibrium states have been shown to be the typical states for a system that is entangled with its environment, suggesting a possible identification between thermodynamic and von Neumann entropies. In this…
Thermodynamics have been applied to astronomy, biology, psychology, some social systems and so on. But, various evolutions from astronomy to biology and social systems cannot be only increase of entropy. When fluctuations are magnified due…
The second law of nonequilibrium thermodynamics within the open system paradigm (a small system coupled to one or multiple baths) is derived. This is done by showing positivity of entropy production for arbitrary Hamiltonian dynamics for a…
The second law of thermodynamics implies a relationship between the net entropy export by the Earth and its internal irreversible entropy production. The application of this constraint for the purpose of understanding Earth's climate is…
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…