The Question of Negative Temperatures in Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

David A. Lavis

doi:10.1016/j.shpsb.2019.02.002

The Question of Negative Temperatures in Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

David A. Lavis

Mathematics

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7 Citations (Scopus)

63 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We show that both positive and negative absolute temperatures and monotonically increasing and decreasing entropy in adiabatic processes are consistent with Carathéodory's version of the second law and we explore the modifications of the Kelvin--Planck and Clausius versions which are needed to accommodate these possibilities.We show, in part by using the equivalence of distributions and the canonical distribution, that the correct microcanonical entropy, is the surface (Boltzmann) form rather than the bulk (Gibbs) form thereby providing for the possibility of negative temperatures and we counter
the contention on the part of a number of authors that the surface entropy fails to satisfy fundamental thermodynamic
relationships.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	26-63
Number of pages	38
Journal	Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Volume	67
Early online date	14 May 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2019.02.002
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2019

Keywords

Microcanonical entropy
Negative temperatures
The Carathéodory, Kelvin–Planck and Clausius versions of the second law

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10.1016/j.shpsb.2019.02.002

The Question of Negative Temperatures_LAVIS_Accepted7February2019_GREEN AAM (CC BY-NC-ND)Accepted author manuscript, 497 KBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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AB - We show that both positive and negative absolute temperatures and monotonically increasing and decreasing entropy in adiabatic processes are consistent with Carathéodory's version of the second law and we explore the modifications of the Kelvin--Planck and Clausius versions which are needed to accommodate these possibilities.We show, in part by using the equivalence of distributions and the canonical distribution, that the correct microcanonical entropy, is the surface (Boltzmann) form rather than the bulk (Gibbs) form thereby providing for the possibility of negative temperatures and we counter the contention on the part of a number of authors that the surface entropy fails to satisfy fundamental thermodynamic relationships.

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JO - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

JF - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

ER -

The Question of Negative Temperatures in Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

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Keywords

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