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The modern textbook analysis of the thermal state of photons inside a three-dimensional reflective cavity is based on the three quantum numbers that characterize photon's energy eigenvalues coming out when the boundary conditions are imposed. The crucial passage from the quantum numbers to the continuous frequency is operated by introducing a three-dimensional continuous version of the three discrete quantum numbers, which leads to the energy spectral density and to the entropy spectral density. This standard analysis obscures the role of the multiplicity of energy eigenvalues associated to the same eigenfrequency. In this paper we review the past derivations of Bose's entropy spectral density and present a new analysis of energy spectral density and entropy spectral density based on the multiplicity of energy eigenvalues. Our analysis explicitly defines the eigenfrequency distribution of energy and entropy and uses it as a starting point for the passage from the discrete eigenfrequencies to the continuous frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present age, which can be called the Information Age, has a core technology constituted by bits transported by photons. Both concepts, bit and photon, originated in the past century: the concept of photon was introduced by Planck in 1900 when he advanced the solution of the blackbody spectrum, and bit is a term first used by Shannon in 1948 when he introduced the theorems that founded information theory. The connection between Planck and Shannon is not immediately apparent; nor is it obvious that they derived their basic results from the concept of entropy. Examination of other important scientists can shed light on Planck's and Shannon's work in these respects. Darwin and Fowler, who in 1922 published a couple of papers where they reinterpreted Planck's results, pointed out the centrality of the partition function to statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. The same roots have been more recently reconsidered by Jaynes, who extended the considerations advanced by Darwin and Fowler to information theory. This paper investigates how the concept of entropy was propagated in the past century in order to show how a simple intuition, born in the 1824 during the first industrial revolution in the mind of the young French engineer Carnot, is literally still enlightening the fourth industrial revolution and probably will continue to do so in the coming century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical statistical mechanics has long relied on assumptions such as the equipartition theorem to understand the behavior of the complicated systems of many particles. The successes of this approach are well known, but there are also many well-known issues with classical theories. For some of these, the introduction of quantum mechanics is necessary, e.g., the ultraviolet catastrophe. However, more recently, the validity of assumptions such as the equipartition of energy in classical systems was called into question. For instance, a detailed analysis of a simplified model for blackbody radiation was apparently able to deduce the Stefan–Boltzmann law using purely classical statistical mechanics. This novel approach involved a careful analysis of a "metastable" state which greatly delays the approach to equilibrium. In this paper, we perform a broad analysis of such a metastable state in the classical Fermi–Pasta–Ulam–Tsingou (FPUT) models. We treat both the α -FPUT and β -FPUT models, exploring both quantitative and qualitative behavior. After introducing the models, we validate our methodology by reproducing the well-known FPUT recurrences in both models and confirming earlier results on how the strength of the recurrences depends on a single system parameter. We establish that the metastable state in the FPUT models can be defined by using a single degree-of-freedom measure—the spectral entropy (η)—and show that this measure has the power to quantify the distance from equipartition. For the α -FPUT model, a comparison to the integrable Toda lattice allows us to define rather clearly the lifetime of the metastable state for the standard initial conditions. We next devise a method to measure the lifetime of the metastable state t m in the α -FPUT model that reduces the sensitivity to the exact initial conditions. Our procedure involves averaging over random initial phases in the plane of initial conditions, the P 1 - Q 1 plane. Applying this procedure gives us a power-law scaling for t m , with the important result that the power laws for different system sizes collapse down to the same exponent as E α 2 → 0 . We examine the energy spectrum E (k) over time in the α -FPUT model and again compare the results to those of the Toda model. This analysis tentatively supports a method for an irreversible energy dissipation process suggested by Onorato et al.: four-wave and six-wave resonances as described by the "wave turbulence" theory. We next apply a similar approach to the β -FPUT model. Here, we explore in particular the different behavior for the two different signs of β. Finally, we describe a procedure for calculating t m in the β -FPUT model, a very different task than for the α -FPUT model, because the β -FPUT model is not a truncation of an integrable nonlinear model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the exact solutions in modified gravity. It is one of the main problems of mathematical physics for the gravity theory. One can obtain an exact solution if the field equations reduce to a system of ordinary differential equations. In this paper we consider a number of exact solutions obtained by the method of separation of variables. Some applications to Cosmology and BH entropy are briefly mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper consists of three parts. In the first part, we prove that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy is the unique expression of black hole entropy. Our proof is constructed in the framework of thermodynamics without any statistical discussion. In the second part, intrinsic properties of quantum mechanics are shown, which justify the Boltzmann formula to yield a unique entropy in statistical mechanics. These properties clarify three conditions, one of which is necessary and others are sufficient for the validity of Boltzmann formula. In the third part, by combining the above results, we find a reasonable suggestion from the sufficient conditions that the potential of gravitational interaction among microstates of underlying quantum gravity may not diverge to negative infinity (such as Newtonian gravity) but is bounded below at a finite length scale. In addition to that, from the necessary condition, the interaction has to be repulsive within the finite length scale. The length scale should be Planck size. Thus, quantum gravity may become repulsive at Planck length. Also, a relation of these suggestions with action integral of gravity at semi-classical level is given. These suggestions about quantum gravity are universal in the sense that they are independent of any existing model of quantum gravity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern textbook analysis of the thermal state of photons inside a three-dimensional reflective cavity is based on the three quantum numbers that characterize photon’s energy eigenvalues coming out when the boundary conditions are imposed. The crucial passage from the quantum numbers to the continuous frequency is operated by introducing a three-dimensional continuous version of the three discrete quantum numbers, which leads to the energy spectral density and to the entropy spectral density. This standard analysis obscures the role of the multiplicity of energy eigenvalues associated to the same eigenfrequency. In this paper we review the past derivations of Bose’s entropy spectral density and present a new analysis of energy spectral density and entropy spectral density based on the multiplicity of energy eigenvalues. Our analysis explicitly defines the eigenfrequency distribution of energy and entropy and uses it as a starting point for the passage from the discrete eigenfrequencies to the continuous frequency.

The present age, which can be called the Information Age, has a core technology constituted by bits transported by photons. Both concepts, bit and photon, originated in the past century: the concept of photon was introduced by Planck in 1900 when he advanced the solution of the blackbody spectrum, and bit is a term first used by Shannon in 1948 when he introduced the theorems that founded information theory. The connection between Planck and Shannon is not immediately apparent; nor is it obvious that they derived their basic results from the concept of entropy. Examination of other important scientists can shed light on Planck’s and Shannon’s work in these respects. Darwin and Fowler, who in 1922 published a couple of papers where they reinterpreted Planck’s results, pointed out the centrality of the partition function to statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. The same roots have been more recently reconsidered by Jaynes, who extended the considerations advanced by Darwin and Fowler to information theory. This paper investigates how the concept of entropy was propagated in the past century in order to show how a simple intuition, born in the 1824 during the first industrial revolution in the mind of the young French engineer Carnot, is literally still enlightening the fourth industrial revolution and probably will continue to do so in the coming century.

In the background of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe, there exists Hawking radiation which comes from the cosmic apparent horizon due to quantum effect. Although the Hawking radiation on the late time evolution of the universe could be safely neglected, it plays an important role in the very early stage of the universe. In view of this point, we identify the temperature in the scalar field potential with the Hawking temperature of cosmic apparent horizon. Then we find a nonsingular universe sourced by the temperature-dependent scalar field. We find that the universe could be created from a de Sitter phase which has the Planck energy density. Thus the Big-Bang singularity is avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the external factor perturbations on solar radiation. Firstly, the influence on the photon distribution function in the space of frequencies is analyzed and, later, the modification generated in equations of internal energy, entropy, and radiation is viewed in order to deduce an expression to calculate the spectral exergy of perturbed radiation.

In this work, we present the generalization of some thermodynamic properties of the black body radiation (BBR) towards an n-dimensional Euclidean space. For this case, the Planck function and the Stefan-Boltzmann law have already been given by Landsberg and de Vos and some adjustments by Menon and Agrawal. However, since then, not much more has been done on this subject, and we believe there are some relevant aspects yet to explore. In addition to the results previously found, we calculate the thermodynamic potentials, the efficiency of the Carnot engine, the law for adiabatic processes and the heat capacity at constant volume. There is a region at which an interesting behavior of the thermodynamic potentials arises: maxima and minima appear for the n-dimensional BBR system at very high temperatures and low dimensionality, suggesting a possible application to cosmology. Finally, we propose that an optimality criterion in a thermodynamic framework could be related to the 3-dimensional nature of the universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microcanonical ensemble is the proper ensemble to describe black holes which are not in thermodynamic equilibrium, such as radiating black holes. This choice of ensemble eliminates the problems, e.g., negative specific heat (not allowed in the canonical ensemble) and loss of unitarity, encountered when the canonical ensemble is used. In this review we present an overview of the weaknesses of the standard thermodynamic description of black holes and show how the microcanonical approach can provide a consistent description of black holes and their Hawking radiation at all energy scales. Our approach is based on viewing the horizon area as yielding the ensemble density at fixed system energy. We then compare the decay rates of black holes in the two different pictures. Our description is particularly relevant for the analysis of micro-black holes whose existence is predicted in models with extra-spatial dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]