Abstract
In Chap. 2 we found that the second law of thermodynamics imposes strong restrictions on what can be considered a meaningful thermodynamic measurement. We ask a question motivated by the third law of thermodynamics: What is the coldest possible temperature one can measure in a nonequilibrium quantum system? We have discussed how to measure temperature and voltage in the previous chapter. Most importantly, we realized that temperature and voltage have to be measured simultaneously to ensure uniqueness of the measurement. Here we show that absolute zero cannot be reached for a nonequilibrium quantum system, but arbitrarily low temperatures are, in principle, possible. In quantum coherent conductors, low temperatures result locally when there is destructive interference of “hot” electrons.
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