Buildings, which are in fact ecosystems (living and inanimate organisms interacting together), are nowadays conceived and operated on the base of energy assessments underpinned by the first law of thermodynamics, and design strategies work towards energy conservation. Different approaches, based on the second law of thermodynamics, exist in research; they use the thermodynamic function called e...

In quantum systems which satisfy the hypothesis of equal weights for eigenstates [4], the maximum work principle (for extremely slow and relatively fast operation) is derived by using quantum dynamics alone. This may be a crucial step in establishing a firm connection between macroscopic thermodynamics and microscopic quantum dynamics. For special models introduced in [4, 5], the derivation of ...

which states that the increase in the entropy of a system, when it changes from one condition to another, cannot be less than the integral of the heat absorbed divided for each increment of heat by the temperature of a heat reservoir appropriate for supplying the increment in question. The equality sign in this expression is to be taken as applying to the limiting case of reversible changes.” F...

We show that the appropriate vacuum state for the interior of a box with reflecting walls being lowered adiabatically into a Schwarzschild black hole is the Boulware state. This is concordant with the results of Unruh and Wald, who used a different approach to obtain the stress-energy inside the box. Some comments about an entropy bound for ordinary matter, as first conjectured by Bekenstein, a...

Some works have appeared in recent accredited literature considering the possibility of macroscopic violations of the second law in simulated as well as really executed experiments. We argue the inexistence of such violations in experiments based on the so-called nonbias diode, demonstrating that the interpretation of the authors is flawed by a confusion between the concepts of thermal equilibr...

The piston problem is investigated in the case where the length of the cylinder is infinite (on both sides) and the ratio m/M is a very small parameter, where m is the mass of one particle of the gaz and M is the mass of the piston. Introducing initial conditions such that the stochastic motion of the piston remains in the average at the origin (no drift), it is shown that the time evolution of...

Abstract. A detailed analysis of the adiabatic-piston problem reveals peculiar dynamical features that challenge the general belief that isolated systems necessarily reach a static equilibrium state. In particular, the fact that the piston behaves like a perpetuum mobile, i.e., it never stops but keeps wandering, undergoing sizable oscillations, around the position corresponding to maximum entr...

A new thermodynamic inequality is derived which leads to the maximum work that can be extracted from multi-heat-baths with the assistance of discrete quantum feedback control. The maximum work is determined by the free-energy difference and a generalized mutual information content between the thermodynamic system and the feedback controller. This maximum work can exceed that in conventional the...