The Law of Self-Acting Machines and Irreversible Processes with Reversible Replicas

Abstract

Clausius and Kelvin saved Carnot theorem and developed the second law by assuming that Carnot machines can work in the absence of an operator and that all the irreversible processes have reversible replicas. The former assumption restored Carnot theorem as an experience of mankind whereas the latter generated “the law of ever increasing entropy”. Both assumptions are wrong so it makes sense to return to Carnot theorem (or some equivalent) and test it experimentally. Two testable paradigms ‐ the system performing two types of reversible work and the system in dynamical equilibrium ‐ suggest that perpetuum mobile of the second kind in the presence of an operator is possible. The deviation from the second law prediction, expressed as difference between partial derivatives in a Maxwell relation, measures the degree of structural‐functional evolution for the respective system.