Breakdown of the zeroth law of thermodynamics as a consequence of diffraction of diffuse radiation at multidimensional regular structures

TL;DR

This paper reports experimental evidence that diffraction at two-dimensional gratings causes anisotropy in diffuse radiation, challenging the assumption of equal a priori probabilities in nonergodic systems and suggesting a need to revise statistical physics foundations.

Contribution

It demonstrates experimentally that diffraction can break isotropy in diffuse light, questioning the ergodic hypothesis in statistical physics.

Findings

Significant deviation from Lambert's law observed.

Angular anisotropy appears in initially homogeneous light.

Diffraction causes loss of isotropy in diffuse radiation.

Abstract

This article is devoted to the complete results of an experimental test of the theoretical assumption that the basic axiomatic postulate of statistical physics according to which it is equally probable for a closed system to reside in any of the microstates accessible to it may be invalid for nonergodic cases. In the course of photometric experiments for the purpose of recording the predicted loss of isotropy by a diffuse light field when it came into contact with a two-dimensional phase-type diffraction grating, a significant deviation from Lambert's law was detected when the diffuse photon gas was scattered by the grating surface. This caused angular anisotropy of the radiation fluxes to appear in the initially homogeneous light field. These results provide a basis for revising the determination of the most probable macrostate of a closed system.