A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics

The third law of thermodynamics, first formulated in 1912, states that any process cannot reach absolute zero temperature in finite time. Here, the authors derive the third law in the quantum regime as a bound on the resources necessary to cool a system to any temperature.

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lluís Masanes, Jonathan Oppenheim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017-03-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14538