Validity of the second law in nonextensive quantum thermodynamics

In a previous work (M. Campisi. Stud. Hist. Phil. M. P. 36 (2005) 275-290) we have addressed the mechanical foundations of equilibrium thermodynamics on the basis of the Generalized Helmholtz Theorem. It was found that the volume entropy provides a good mechanical analogue of thermodynamic entropy because it satisfies the heat theorem and it is an adiabatic invariant. This property explains the ``equal'' sign in Clausius principle ($S_f \geq S_i$) in a purely mechanical way a...

The Clausius inequality (CI) is one of the most versatile forms of the second law. Although it was originally conceived for macroscopic steam engines, it is also applicable to quantum single particle machines. Moreover, the CI is the main connecting thread between classical microscopic thermodynamics and nanoscopic quantum thermodynamics. In this chapter, we study three different approaches for obtaining the CI. Each approach shows different aspects of the CI. The goals of th...

All presently available results lead to the conclusion that nonextensivity, in the sense of nonextensive statistical mechanics (i.e., $q \ne 1$), does {\it not} modify anything to the second principle of thermodynamics, which therefore holds in the usual way. Moreover, some claims in the literature that this principle can be violated for specific anomalous systems (e.g., granular materials) can be shown to be fallacious. One recent such example is analyzed, and it is suggeste...

The problem of temperature in nonextensive statistical mechanics is studied. Considering the first law of thermodynamics and a "quasi-reversible process", it is shown that the Tsallis entropy becomes the Clausius entropy if the inverse of the Lagrange multiplier, $beta$, associated with the constraint on the internal energy is regarded as the temperature. This temperature is different from the previously proposed "physical temperature" defined through the assumption of divisi...

It is shown that the structure of thermodynamics is "form invariant", when it is derived using maximum entropy principle for various choices of entropy and even beyond equilibrium. By the form invariance of thermodynamics, it is meant that the form of the free energy (internal energy minus the temperature times entropy) remains unaltered when all the entities entering this relation are suitably defined. The useful ingredients for this are the equilibrium entropy associated wi...

It is proved here that, as a consequence of the unitary quantum evolution, the expectation value of a properly defined quantum entropy operator (as opposed to the non-evolving von Neumann entropy) can only increase during non adiabatic transformations and remains constant during adiabatic ones. Thus Clausius formulation of the second law is established as a theorem in quantum mechanics, in a way that is equivalent to the previously established formulation in terms of minimal ...

The Clausius inequality (CI) form of the second law of thermodynamics relates information changes (entropy) to changes in the first moment of the energy (heat and indirectly also work). Are there similar relations between other moments of the energy distribution, and other information measures, or is the Clausius inequality a one of a kind instance of the energy-information paradigm? If there are additional relations, can they be used to make predictions on measurable quantit...

In the scientific and engineering literature, the second law of thermodynamics is expressed in terms of the behavior of entropy in reversible and irreversible processes. According to the prevailing statistical mechanics interpretation the entropy is viewed as a nonphysical statistical attribute, a measure of either disorder in a system, or lack of information about the system, or erasure of information collected about the system, and a plethora of analytic expressions are pro...

The nonextensive statistics based on Tsallis entropy have been so far used for the systems composed of subsystems having same $q$. The applicability of this statistics to the systems with different $q$'s is still a matter of investigation. The actual difficulty is that the class of systems to which the theory has been applied is limited by the usual nonadditivity rule of Tsallis entropy which, in reality, has been established for the systems having same $q$ value. In this pap...

In textbooks on statistical mechanics, one finds often arguments based on classical mechanics, phase space and ergodicity in order to justify the second law of thermodynamics. However, the basic equations of motion of classical mechanics are deterministic and reversible, while the second law of thermodynamics is irreversible and not deterministic, because it states that a system forgets its past when approaching equilibrium. I argue that all "derivations" of the second law of...