TITLE:

THE SECOND LAW SEEN FROM CLASSICAL MECHANICS

DATE:

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 214

SPEAKER:

Peter Salamon, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, San Diego State University

ABSTRACT:

The talk will survey modern views of the second law of thermodynamics and claim that it holds even if physicists have stopped believing in it. It will also review some surprising recent findings regarding the second law of thermodynamics when applied to an optimally controlled collection of harmonic oscillators. Even within the reversible framework of classical mechanics, the best control leads to irreversibility if not enough time is alloted. The findings have implications for the attainability of absolute zero and for our understanding of irreversibility in physical processes.

HOST:

Andy Cooksy

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