Information loss as a foundational principle for the second law of thermodynamics

DOI10.1007/S10701-007-9159-ZMaRDI QIDQ2473323zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors T. L. Duncan, J. S. Semura

Publication date 27 February 2008

Published in Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0703235

zbMATH Keywords

EntropyInformationSecond lawStatistical mechanicsThermodynamics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Foundations of thermodynamics and heat transfer (80A05) Foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics (82B03) Statistical thermodynamics (82B30)

Abstract: In a previous paper [1] we considered the question, "What underlying property of nature is responsible for the second law?" A simple answer can be stated in terms of information: The fundamental loss of information gives rise to the second law. This line of thinking highlights the existence of two independent but coupled sets of laws: Information dynamics and energy dynamics. The distinction helps shed light on certain foundational questions in statistical mechanics. For example, the confusion surrounding previous "derivations" of the second law from energy dynamics can be resolved by noting that such derivations incorporate one or more assumptions that correspond to the loss of information. In this paper we further develop and explore the perspective in which the second law is fundamentally a law of information dynamics.

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Cites work

• Challenges to the second law of thermodynamics. Theory and experiment.
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1619363 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2040480 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3307452 (Why is no real title available?)
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• Logical Reversibility of Computation
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Cited in

(5)

• In search of time lost: asymmetry of time and irreversibility in natural processes
• The deep physics behind the Second Law: information and energy as independent forms of bookkeeping
• Emergence of the second law out of reversible dynamics
• The physical character of information
• Macroscopic time evolution and MaxEnt inference for closed systems with Hamiltonian dynamics

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