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A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics
The most accepted version of the third law of thermodynamics, the unattainability principle, states that any process cannot reach absolute zero temperature in a finite number of steps and within a finite time. Here, we provide a derivation of the principle that applies to arbitrary cooling processes...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5355879/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28290452 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14538 |
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author | Masanes, Lluís Oppenheim, Jonathan |
author_facet | Masanes, Lluís Oppenheim, Jonathan |
author_sort | Masanes, Lluís |
collection | PubMed |
description | The most accepted version of the third law of thermodynamics, the unattainability principle, states that any process cannot reach absolute zero temperature in a finite number of steps and within a finite time. Here, we provide a derivation of the principle that applies to arbitrary cooling processes, even those exploiting the laws of quantum mechanics or involving an infinite-dimensional reservoir. We quantify the resources needed to cool a system to any temperature, and translate these resources into the minimal time or number of steps, by considering the notion of a thermal machine that obeys similar restrictions to universal computers. We generally find that the obtainable temperature can scale as an inverse power of the cooling time. Our results also clarify the connection between two versions of the third law (the unattainability principle and the heat theorem), and place ultimate bounds on the speed at which information can be erased. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5355879 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-53558792017-04-17 A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics Masanes, Lluís Oppenheim, Jonathan Nat Commun Article The most accepted version of the third law of thermodynamics, the unattainability principle, states that any process cannot reach absolute zero temperature in a finite number of steps and within a finite time. Here, we provide a derivation of the principle that applies to arbitrary cooling processes, even those exploiting the laws of quantum mechanics or involving an infinite-dimensional reservoir. We quantify the resources needed to cool a system to any temperature, and translate these resources into the minimal time or number of steps, by considering the notion of a thermal machine that obeys similar restrictions to universal computers. We generally find that the obtainable temperature can scale as an inverse power of the cooling time. Our results also clarify the connection between two versions of the third law (the unattainability principle and the heat theorem), and place ultimate bounds on the speed at which information can be erased. Nature Publishing Group 2017-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC5355879/ /pubmed/28290452 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14538 Text en Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Masanes, Lluís Oppenheim, Jonathan A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics |
title | A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics |
title_full | A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics |
title_fullStr | A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics |
title_full_unstemmed | A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics |
title_short | A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics |
title_sort | general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5355879/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28290452 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14538 |
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