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Entropy Revisited: the Plausible Role of Gravitation

Eshel Ben-Jacob·Ziv Hermon·Alexsander Shnirman
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Abstract

We first present open questions related to the foundations of thermodynamics and statistical physics. We then argue that in principle one can not have "closed systems", and that a universal background should exist. We propose that the gravitational field plays this role, due to its vanishing energy-momentum tensor. This leads to a new possible picture, in which entropy and irreversibility in macroscopic systems emerge from their coupling to the background gravitational field.

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Eshel Ben-Jacob, Ziv Hermon, Alexsander Shnirman. 1999-05-27. Entropy Revisited: the Plausible Role of Gravitation. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0375-9601(99)00256-x

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