2018/03/09 by Arieh Ben‐Naim, Ben-Naim, Arieh
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1803.03398
openalex publication_date 2018/03/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The extension of equilibrium thermodynamics to non-equilibrium systems is based on the assumption of "local equilibrium," followed by the assumption that an entropy-density function may be defined, and that this entropy-density would have the same functional dependence on the local densities, (u,v,n), as the total entropy S on the variables (U,V,N). In this article we question the validity of all the assumptions made in the theory of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. We find that the assumption of "local equilibrium" is ill-founded, that it is not clear how to define an entropy-density function, and it is far from clear that such a function, if it exists at all could be integrated to obtain the so-called "entropy production" of the entire system. These findings shed serious doubt on the validity of applying thermodynamic theory to systems far from equilibrium systems.