Second law of thermodynamics

The second law of thermodynamics for a reversible change (that is to say that the system evolves through a succession of equilibrium states) can be written as

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \left.dQ\right.=TdS}

Thus for a closed system, having a fixed number of atoms/molecules, one has

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \left.dU\right.=TdS -PdV}

where $U$ is the internal energy. For an open system:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \left.dU\right.=TdS -PdV + \mu dN}

where Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \mu} is the chemical potential.

For Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U(S,V)} one has the following total differential

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle dU=\left(\frac{\partial U}{\partial S}\right)_V dS + \left(\frac{\partial U}{\partial V}\right)_S dV}

See also

• Entropy
• Fluctuation theorem
• H-theorem

References

1. Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot "Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance" (1824), printed in Annales scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure Sér. 2, 1 pp. 393-457 (1872)

Interesting reading

• Esther Hänggi and Stephanie Wehner "A violation of the uncertainty principle implies a violation of the second law of thermodynamics", arXiv:1205.6894v1 [quant-ph] Thu, 31 May 2012