Thermodynamics as a research area investigates the fundamental laws governing energy, entropy, and the macroscopic behavior of physical systems at or near equilibrium, and their extensions to nonequilibrium processes. It encompasses the formulation and application of the four laws of thermodynamics, characterization of state functions, phase behavior, and thermodynamic potentials, and rigorous derivation of efficiency limits for engines, refrigerators, and energy conversion devices. Contemporary research integrates classical, statistical, and quantum thermodynamics to study emergent phenomena, irreversible processes, fluctuation theorems, and information–thermodynamics connections in complex, soft-matter, biological, and nanoscale systems.
Just over 200 years after French engineer and physicist Sadi Carnot formulated the second law of thermodynamics, an international team of researchers has unveiled an analogous law for the quantum world. This second law of ...
General Physics
Jul 3, 2025
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177
Landauer's principle is a thermodynamics concept also relevant in information theory, which states that erasing one bit of information from an information system results in the dissipation of at least a specific amount (i.e., ...
A research team from Penn State has broken a 165-year-old law of thermal radiation with unprecedented strength, setting the stage for more efficient energy harvesting, heat transfer and infrared sensing.
General Physics
Jun 20, 2025
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113
Electricity can be easily converted into heat—every electric cooker does it. But is the opposite also possible? Can heat be converted into electricity—directly, without a steam turbine or similar detours?
Condensed Matter
Jun 18, 2025
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35
Nernst's theorem—a general experimental observation presented in 1905 that entropy exchanges tend to zero when the temperature tends to zero—has been directly linked to the second principle of thermodynamics in a paper ...
General Physics
Jun 17, 2025
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248
In a study by TU Wien and FU Berlin, researchers have measured what happens when quantum physical information is lost. This clarifies important connections between thermodynamics, information theory and quantum physics.
Quantum Physics
Jun 5, 2025
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92
The extraction of work (i.e., usable energy) from quantum processes is a key focus of quantum thermodynamics research, which explores the application of thermodynamics laws to quantum systems. Meanwhile, other quantum physics ...
Statistical mechanics is one of the pillars of modern physics. Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) and Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) were its primary formulators. They both worked to establish a bridge between macroscopic ...
Condensed Matter
May 27, 2025
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87
Transistors are the fundamental building blocks behind today's electronic revolution, powering everything from smartphones to powerful servers by controlling the flow of electrical currents. But imagine a parallel world, ...
A team of researchers led by a physics graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst made the surprising discovery of what they call a "shape-recovering liquid," which defies some long-held expectations derived ...
General Physics
Apr 4, 2025
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