The existing thermodynamics of the cosmological horizon in de Sitter spacetime is established in the micro-canonical ensemble, while the thermodynamics of black hole horizons is established in the canonical ensemble. Generally in the ordinary thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, both of the micro-canonical and canonical ensembles yield the same equation of state for any thermodynamic syste...

Black-hole physics mirrors thermodynamics in many respects. Inparticular, it is widely believed that a system consisting of ordinary matter interacting with a black hole will obey the generalized second law of thermodynamics. In this paper we challenge the validity of the law in a gedanken experiment in which an entropy-bearing rotating system falls into a stationary black hole. It is shown tha...

The Nernst formulation of the third law of ordinary thermody-namics (often referred to as the \Nernst theorem") asserts that the entropy, S, of a system must go to zero (or a \universal constant") as its temperature, T , goes to zero. This assertion is commonly considered to be a fundamental law of thermodynamics. As such, it seems to spoil the otherwise perfect analogy between the ordinary law...

Quantum thermodynamics addresses the emergence of thermodynamical laws from quantum mechanics. The III-law of thermodynamics has been mostly ignored. There are seemingly two independent formulation of the third law of thermodynamics, both originally stated by Nernst. The first is known as Nernst heat theorem, which is purely static, and implies that the entropy flow from any substance at the ab...

In this paper we analyze some interesting features of the thermodynamics rotating BTZ black hole from Carath\'{e}odory axiomatic postulate, for which, exploit appropriate Pfaffian form. The allowed adiabatic transformations are then obtained by solving corresponding Cauchy problem, and studied accordingly. Furthermore, discuss implications our approach, regarding second third laws thermodynamic...

We give meaning to the first and second laws of thermodynamics in case of mesoscopic out-of-equilibrium systems which are driven by diffusion processes. The notion of the entropy production is analyzed. The role of the Helmholtz extremum principle is contrasted to that of the more familiar entropy extremum principles. PACS numbers: 02.50.Ey, 05.20.-y, 05.40.Jc

An extension of the fundamental laws of thermodynamics and of the concept of entropy to the ground state fluctuations of the quantum fields is studied and some new results are found. At the end a device to extract energy from the vacuum recently proposed by an author is critically analyzed. It is found that no energy can be extracted cyclically from the vacuum.

In apparent contradiction to the laws of thermodynamics, Maxwell's demon is able to cyclically extract work from a system in contact with a thermal bath, exploiting the information about its microstate. The resolution of this paradox required the insight that an intimate relationship exists between information and thermodynamics. Here, we realize a Maxwell demon experiment that tracks the state...