Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.7
2.7
Journals
Entropy
Special Issues
The Second Law and Asymmetry of Time
entropy-logo
Submit to Entropy Review for Entropy Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

The Second Law and Asymmetry of Time

A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Time".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2021) | Viewed by 9012

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alexander Klimenko

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: reacting flows; turbulence; energy; conventional and non-conventional thermodynamics; multiscale phenomena; technology and its cycles; complex competitive systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Debra J. Searles

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology & School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: non-equilibrium systems; molecular dynamics simulation; statistical mechanics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The question of why the laws of physics are time-symmetric, while the world around us is time-directional has been discussed since the end of the nineteenth century. Intensive research in the last few decades has brought a number of notable results (e.g., environment-induced decoherence and thermalization, and the fluctuation theorem) that clarify some of the associated issues. After 150 years of debate, there is now some agreement on the links and distinctions between the questions about the direction of time, the increase of entropy, and the predominant direction of decoherence. However, there are still open questions and arguments about the principal mechanisms that enact asymmetry of temporal directions. Is there a role for low-entropy conditions imposed on the early Universe, and how are the arrow of time and reversibility connected? The editors of this volume have somewhat different opinions about these issues, and invite contributors to put forward arguments and justifications that can bring clarity to these fundamental problems. Contributions based on mechanical-, quantum-, and statistical perspectives are welcome.

The special issue will feature several invited contributors, who have made an eminent contribution to the area, and a number of regular submissions. 

The editors have invited several distinguished scholars to contribute to the special issue:

Abarzhi, Snezhana (University of Western Australia)
Abe, Sumiyoshi (Mie University)
Bonella, Sara (EPFL)
Harris, Rosemary (Queen Mary University of London)
Maas, Ulrich (KIT)

The volume is also dedicated to a broad spectrum of results, ideas and reviews associated with directionality of time, antecedent causality and implications of the second law of thermodynamics. Papers investigating time-directional processes and effects ranging from microscopic scales reflecting irreversibilities observed in the quantum world, to mesoscopic scales and effects, to macroscopic scales associated with thermodynamics and complex evolutionary processes are welcome in this issue.      

Dr. Alexander Klimenko
Prof. Debra Bernhardt
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Entropy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • The second law of thermodynamics
  • The arrow of time and Boltzmann time hypothesis
  • Fluctuation theorem
  • Quantum decoherence, collapse, and thermalization

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Editorial

Jump to: Research

2 pages, 157 KiB  
Editorial
The Second Law, Asymmetry of Time and Their Implications
by Alexander Y. Klimenko
Entropy 2022, 24(7), 862; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/e24070862 - 23 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 989
Abstract
Explaining the asymmetry of the directions of time (the time arrow) is one of the major challenges for modern science [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Second Law and Asymmetry of Time)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

15 pages, 2198 KiB  
Article
Supernovae and the Arrow of Time
by Snezhana I. Abarzhi, Desmon L. Hill, Annie Naveh, Kurt C. Williams and Cameron E. Wright
Entropy 2022, 24(6), 829; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/e24060829 - 14 Jun 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1828
Abstract
Supernovae are explosions of stars and are a central problem in astrophysics. Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) and Richtmyer–Meshkov (RM) instabilities develop during the star’s explosion and lead to intense interfacial RT/RM mixing of the star materials. We handle the mathematical challenges of the RT/RM problem [...] Read more.
Supernovae are explosions of stars and are a central problem in astrophysics. Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) and Richtmyer–Meshkov (RM) instabilities develop during the star’s explosion and lead to intense interfacial RT/RM mixing of the star materials. We handle the mathematical challenges of the RT/RM problem based on the group theory approach. We directly link the conservation laws governing RT/RM dynamics to the symmetry-based momentum model, derive the model parameters, and find the analytical solutions and characteristics of RT/RM dynamics with variable accelerations in the linear, nonlinear and mixing regimes. The theory outcomes explain the astrophysical observations and yield the design of laboratory experiments. They suggest that supernova evolution is a non-equilibrium process directed by the arrow of time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Second Law and Asymmetry of Time)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 405 KiB  
Article
Fluctuation Relations for Dissipative Systems in Constant External Magnetic Field: Theory and Molecular Dynamics Simulations
by Alessandro Coretti, Lamberto Rondoni and Sara Bonella
Entropy 2021, 23(2), 146; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/e23020146 - 25 Jan 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1667
Abstract
We illustrate how, contrary to common belief, transient Fluctuation Relations (FRs) for systems in constant external magnetic field hold without the inversion of the field. Building on previous work providing generalized time-reversal symmetries for systems in parallel external magnetic and electric fields, we [...] Read more.
We illustrate how, contrary to common belief, transient Fluctuation Relations (FRs) for systems in constant external magnetic field hold without the inversion of the field. Building on previous work providing generalized time-reversal symmetries for systems in parallel external magnetic and electric fields, we observe that the standard proof of these important nonequilibrium properties can be fully reinstated in the presence of net dissipation. This generalizes recent results for the FRs in orthogonal fields—an interesting but less commonly investigated geometry—and enables direct comparison with existing literature. We also present for the first time a numerical demonstration of the validity of the transient FRs with nonzero magnetic field via nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of a realistic model of liquid NaCl. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Second Law and Asymmetry of Time)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 3107 KiB  
Article
Some Aspects of Time-Reversal in Chemical Kinetics
by Ulrich Maas
Entropy 2020, 22(12), 1386; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/e22121386 - 07 Dec 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2251
Abstract
Chemical kinetics govern the dynamics of chemical systems leading towards chemical equilibrium. There are several general properties of the dynamics of chemical reactions such as the existence of disparate time scales and the fact that most time scales are dissipative. This causes a [...] Read more.
Chemical kinetics govern the dynamics of chemical systems leading towards chemical equilibrium. There are several general properties of the dynamics of chemical reactions such as the existence of disparate time scales and the fact that most time scales are dissipative. This causes a transient relaxation to lower dimensional attracting manifolds in composition space. In this work, we discuss this behavior and investigate how a time reversal effects this behavior. For this, both macroscopic chemical systems as well as microscopic chemical systems (elementary reactions) are considered. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Second Law and Asymmetry of Time)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

9 pages, 257 KiB  
Article
Quantum Weak Invariants: Dynamical Evolution of Fluctuations and Correlations
by Zeyi Shi and Sumiyoshi Abe
Entropy 2020, 22(11), 1219; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/e22111219 - 26 Oct 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1434
Abstract
Weak invariants are time-dependent observables with conserved expectation values. Their fluctuations, however, do not remain constant in time. On the assumption that time evolution of the state of an open quantum system is given in terms of a completely positive map, the fluctuations [...] Read more.
Weak invariants are time-dependent observables with conserved expectation values. Their fluctuations, however, do not remain constant in time. On the assumption that time evolution of the state of an open quantum system is given in terms of a completely positive map, the fluctuations monotonically grow even if the map is not unital, in contrast to the fact that monotonic increases of both the von Neumann entropy and Rényi entropy require the map to be unital. In this way, the weak invariants describe temporal asymmetry in a manner different from the entropies. A formula is presented for time evolution of the covariance matrix associated with the weak invariants in cases where the system density matrix obeys the Gorini–Kossakowski–Lindblad–Sudarshan equation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Second Law and Asymmetry of Time)
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-5
Back to TopTop