Special Issue on Quantum Limits to the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Alexey Nikulov,Daniel Sheehan

doi:10.3390/e6010001

Abstract

Over fifty years ago Arthur Eddington wrote [1]: “The second law of thermodynamics holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations – then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation, well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation”.[...]

Highlights

Despite the deeply rooted belief in its absolute status, the second law has always had surprisingly shallow roots
Since its discovery, physics has undergone multiple paradigm shifts - e.g., quantum mechanics, relativity, chaos - that have revolutionized our view of reality, and yet the second law has emerged essentially unchanged from its classical roots and has been inadequatedly tested in many new experimental regimes where it should apply
Carnot's principle (1824) is such a statement [4]: Useful work cannot be obtained from heat without a temperature difference since such possibility implies the possibility of a perpetuum mobile

Summary

Introduction

Despite the deeply rooted belief in its absolute status, the second law has always had surprisingly shallow roots. A very tidy formulation of the second law can be established from Carnot's investigations: "A perpetuum mobile is impossible because of the irreversibility of thermodynamic processes".

Results

Conclusion