Entropy is in Flux V3.4

Abstract

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 ones. Since thermodynamics does not define entropy out of equilibrium, pure thermodynamics cannot follow the details of how this increase occurs. However, starting with the work of Ludwig Boltzmann in 1872, and continuing to the present day, various models of non-equilibrium behavior have been put together with the specific aim of generalizing the concept of entropy to non-equilibrium situations. This kind of entropy has been termed kinetic entropy to distinguish it from the thermodynamic variety. Knowledge of kinetic entropy started from Boltzmann’s insight about his equation for the time dependence of gaseous systems. In this paper, his result is stated as a definition of kinetic entropy in terms of a local equation for the entropy density. This definition is then applied to Landau’s theory of the Fermi liquid thereby giving the kinetic entropy within that theory. The dynamics of many condensed matter systems including Fermi liquids, low temperature superfluids, and ordinary metals lend themselves to the definition of kinetic entropy. In fact, entropy has been defined and used for a wide variety of situations in which a condensed matter system has been allowed to relax for a sufficient period so that the very most rapid fluctuations have been ironed out. One of the broadest applications of non-equilibrium analysis considers quantum degenerate systems using Martin–Schwinger Green’s functions (Phys Rev 115:1342–1373, 1959) as generalized Wigner functions, \(g^ (\mathbf {p},\omega ,\mathbf {R},T)\). This paper describes once again how the quantum kinetic equations for these functions give locally defined conservation laws for mass momentum and energy. In local thermodynamic equilibrium, this kinetic theory enables a reasonable definition of the density of kinetic entropy. However, when the system is outside of local equilibrium, this definition fails. It is speculated that quantum entanglement is the source of this failure.