Thermodynamics' first law: what information theory tells us

TL;DR

This paper offers a more direct theoretical proof of the first law of thermodynamics, challenging traditional reliance on the adiabatic theorem and strengthening its foundational basis through information theory insights.

Contribution

It provides a novel, direct demonstration of the first law of thermodynamics without using the adiabatic theorem, enhancing its theoretical foundation.

Findings

A direct proof of the first law of thermodynamics

Elimination of the need for the adiabatic theorem

Strengthened theoretical foundation of thermodynamics

Abstract

Thermodynamics, and in particular its first law, is of fundamental importance to Science, and therefore of great general interest to all physicists. The first law, although undoubtedly true, and believed by everyone to be true because of its many verified consequences, rests on a rather weak experimental foundation as its path independent aspect has never been directly verified, and rests on a somewhat weak foundation apropos the need for invoking the so-called adiabatic theorem (AT) to prove it from first principles. We provide here a more direct and convincing theoretical demonstration, without the AT and some other usually employed axioms.