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Irreversibility resulting from contact with a heat bath caused by the finiteness of the system

2000/08/27 by K. Satô, K. Sato, K. Sekimoto +8
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.stat-mech

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0008393

3 figures

openalex publication_date 2000/08/27 · arxiv created 2002/07/20 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

When a small dynamical system that is initially in contact with a heat bath is detached from this heat bath and then caused to undergo a quasi-static adiabatic processes, the statistical distribution of the system's energy differs from that of an equilibrium ensemble. Subsequent contact of the system with another heat bath is inevitably irreversible, hence the entire process cannot be reversed without a net energy transfer to the heat baths.

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