2022
Volume 22, Number 1/2, pp. 9-20
A review of recent developments in quantum thermodynamics and a proposal for redefining entropy as a process, to facilitate reconciling quantum mechanics and relativity
Stephen J. Palmer
Stantec, Stantec House, Warrington, UK
This review of recent advances in quantum thermodynamics reports on how energy redistribution into physical structural state change is related to physical information. I use the findings to propose a new interpretation of entropy production as a process of energy redistribution into physical system state change (change in physical information). This interpretation of the second law is used in a quantum cosmology thought experiment to describe the earliest history of the evolution of the universe as a physical system, based on recent theoretical advances in quantum cosmology. I then compare the outcomes of this analysis based on physical systems logic to challenges that have been proposed for a physical systems narrative that bridges quantum mechanics and relativity and report on the success of this analysis in meeting those challenges.
Keywords: complexity, cosmology, diversity, systems