February 7, 2023
Keio University
Researcher Vu Van Tuan and Professor Keiji Saito from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University have studied probability distributions in systems exposed to a thermal environment and discovered a relationship that interprets the distance between two distributions in terms of the degree of thermodynamic irreversibility. By introducing thermodynamic entropy, which is fundamental to the second law of thermodynamics, and a quantity that indicates the degree of mobility between states, they have shown that the distribution function of a system exhibiting a wide range of dynamics exposed to a thermal environment is closely related to these quantities. This discovery provides a foundation for understanding the operation time required for the dynamic manipulation of thermodynamic states and also deepens our understanding of the thermodynamic arrow of time. Furthermore, it is expected to provide useful insights for understanding the performance limits of various devices operating in a thermal environment. The results of this research were published online in the American Physical Society journal "Physical Review X" on February 3, 2023 (local time).
The full press release can be found below.