Masanes, L;
Oppenheim, J;
(2017)
A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics.
Nature Communications
, 8
, Article ARTN 145. 10.1038/ncomms14538.
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Abstract
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.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/ncomms14538 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14538 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | 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/ |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Multidisciplinary Sciences, Science & Technology - Other Topics, GROUND-STATE, QUANTUM, SYSTEMS, ENTANGLEMENT, ENTROPY, THEOREM, ENERGY, COST |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > London Centre for Nanotechnology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1484219 |
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