Verschraenkung versus Stosszahlansatz: Disappearance of the Thermodynamic Arrow in a High-Correlation Environment

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that ambient correlations and entanglement can reverse the thermodynamic arrow, allowing heat to flow from cold to hot, challenging traditional assumptions about entropy and the second law.

Contribution

It constructs entangled states of macroscopic systems where heat flows counterintuitively, showing entanglement can negate the thermodynamic arrow in high-correlation environments.

Findings

Entanglement causes heat to flow from cold to hot.

Reversal of the thermodynamic arrow due to high correlations.

Second law holds in low-entropy environments.

Abstract

The crucial role of ambient correlations in determining thermodynamic behavior is established. A class of entangled states of two macroscopic systems is constructed such that each component is in a state of thermal equilibrium at a given temperature, and when the two are allowed to interact heat can flow from the colder to the hotter system. A dilute gas model exhibiting this behavior is presented. This reversal of the thermodynamic arrow is a consequence of the entanglement between the two systems, a condition that is opposite to molecular chaos and shown to be unlikely in a low-entropy environment. By contrast, the second law is established by proving Clausius' inequality in a low-entropy environment. These general results strongly support the expectation, first expressed by Boltzmann and subsequently elaborated by others, that the second law is an emergent phenomenon that requires a low-entropy cosmological environment, one that can effectively function as an ideal information sink.