Title: EEL%204930%20
1EEL 4930 6 / 5930 5, Spring 06Physical Limits
of Computing
http//www.eng.fsu.edu/mpf
- Slides for a course taught byMichael P. Frankin
the Department of Electrical Computer
Engineering
2Physical Limits of ComputingCourse Outline
Currently I am working on writing up a set of
course notes based on this outline,intended to
someday evolve into a textbook
- Course Introduction
- Moores Law vs. Modern Physics
- Foundations
- Required Background Material in Computing
Physics - Fundamentals
- The Deep Relationships between Physics and
Computation
- IV. Core Principles
- The two Revolutionary Paradigms of Physical
Computation - V. Technologies
- Present and Future Physical Mechanisms for the
Practical Realization of Information Processing - VI. Conclusion
3Part II. Foundations
- This first part of the course quickly reviews
some key background knowledge that you will need
to be familiar with in order to follow the later
material. - You may have seen some of this material before.
- Part II is divided into two chapters
- Chapter II.A. The Theory of Information and
Computation - Chapter II.B. Required Physics Background
4Chapter II.B. Required Physics Background
- This chapter covers All the Physics You Need to
Know, for purposes of this course - II.B.1. Physical Quantities, Units, and
Constants - II.B.2. Modern Formulations of Mechanics
- II.B.3. Basics of Relativity Theory
- II.B.4. Basics of Quantum Mechanics
- II.B.5. Thermodynamics Statistical Mechanics
- II.B.6. Solid-State Physics
5Section II.B.5 Thermodynamics and Statistical
Mechanics
- This section covers what you need to know, from a
modern perspective - As informed by fields like quantum statistical
mechanics, information theory, and quantum
information theory - We break this down into subsections as follows
- (a) What is Energy?
- (b) Entropy in Thermodynamics
- (c) Entropy Increase and the 2nd Law of Thermo.
- (d) Equilibrium States and the Boltzmann
Distribution - (e) The Concept of Temperature
- (f) The Nature of Heat
- (g) Reversible Heat Engines and the Carnot Cycle
- (h) Helmholtz and Gibbs Free Energy
6Subsection II.B.5.aWhat is Energy?
7What is energy, anyway?
- Related to the constancy of physical law.
- Nöthers theorem (1905) relates conservation laws
to physical symmetries. - Using this theorem, the conservation of energy
(1st law of thermo.) can be shown to be a direct
consequence of the time-symmetry of the laws of
physics. - We saw that energy eigenstates are those state
vectors that remain constant (except for a phase
rotation) over time. (The eigenvectors of the
Udt matrix.) - Equilibrium states are particular statistical
mixtures of these - The states eigenvalue gives the energy of the
eigenstate - This is the rate of phase-angle accumulation of
that state! - Later, we will see that energy can also be viewed
as the rate of (quantum) computing that is
occurring within a physical system. - Or more precisely, the rate at which quantum
computational effort is being exerted within
that system.
Noether rhymes with mother
8Aside on Noethers theorem
- (Of no particular use in this course, but fun to
know anyway) - Virtually all of physical law can be
reconstructed as a necessary consequence of
various fundamental symmetries of the dynamics. - These exemplify the general principle that the
dynamical behavior itself should naturally be
independent of all the arbitrary choices that we
make in setting up our mathematical
representations of states. - Translational symmetry (arbitrariness of position
of origin) implies - Conservation of momentum!
- Symmetry under rotations in space (no preferred
direction) implies - Conservation of angular momentum!
- Symmetry of laws under Lorentz boosts, and
arbitrary curvature of coordinates - Implies special general relativity!
- Symmetry of electron wavefunctions (state
vectors, or density matrices) under rotations in
the complex plane (arbitrariness of phase angles)
implies - For uniform rotations over all spatial points
- We can derive the conservation of electric
charge! - For spatially nonuniform (gauge) rotations
- Can derive the existence of photons, and all of
Maxwells equations!! - Add gauge symmetries for other types of particles
and interactions - Can get QED, QCD and the Standard Model! (Except
for mass and coupling constants) - Discrete symmetries have various implications as
well...
9Types of Energy
- Over the course of this module, we will see how
to break down total Hamiltonian energy in various
ways, and identify portions of the total energy
that are of different types - Rest mass-energy vs. Kinetic energy vs.
Potential energy (next slide) - Heat content vs. chill content (subsection e)
- Free energy vs. spent energy (subsection g)
10Hamiltonian, Rest, Kinetic, and Potential Energies
- Hamiltonian energy Eham
- Total energy of a physical system.
- The quantity that is conserved due to
time-displacement symmetry. - The Hermitian operator that generates the quantum
time evolution. - Object energy Eobj mc2 mrestc2/?
(1/?)Erest - Total localized energy carried by a object moving
with a given velocity. - Rest (mass-)energy Erest mrestc2 ?Eobj
- Localized mass-energy of an object as seen in its
(co-moving) center-of-mass reference frame. - Kinetic energy Ekin Eobj - Erest (1/? -
1)Erest - Extra energy (beyond rest energy) that must be
added to an object in order to boost it to a
given velocity, relative to a fixed observer
frame. - Potential energy Epot Eham - Eobj Eham -
(1/?)Erest - Hamiltonian energy not included in object energy.
- Its negative for attractive forces, positive for
repulsive forces. - Some people consider it to be an unreal part of
the Hamiltonian (thus the name) - Generally viewed as a non-localized energy of
interaction between an object and other objects
in its surrounding environment. - In quantum field theory, it involves the exchange
of virtual particles
11Relations Between Some Important Types of Energy
MotionalenergyM E-F pv (1/?-?)R ß2E(0,
gtK)
HamiltonianH EP E-N (0, conserved)
Kinetic energy K E - R (1/?-1)R (0, M)
TotalrealobjectenergyE R/?(0, R)
LagrangianL M-H N-F(extremized,usu.
minimized)
Rest energy R m0c2 (0,constant)
Negative Nof potentialenergy(often gt0)
Potentialenergy P(often lt0)
Functional energyF ?R(0, R)
(?1/2 in this example)
Zero energy (vacuum reference level)
12Subsection II.B.5.bEntropy in Thermodynamics
13What is entropy?
- First was characterized by Rudolph Clausius in
1850. - Originally was just defined via (marginal) heat
temperature, dS dQ/T - Noted to never decrease in thermodynamic
processes. - Significance and physical meaning were
mysterious. - In 1880s, Ludwig Boltzmann proposed that
entropy S is the logarithm of a systems number N
of states, S k ln N - What we would now call the information capacity
of a system - Holds for systems at equilibrium, in a
maximum-entropy state - The modern understanding that emerged from
20th-century physics is that entropy is indeed
the amount of unknown or incompressible
information in a physical system. - Important contributions to this understanding
were made by von Neumann, Shannon, Jaynes, and
Zurek. - Lets explain this a little more fully
14Standard States
- A certain state (or state subset) of a system may
be declared, by convention, to be standard
within some context. - E.g. gas at standard temperature pressure in
physics experiments. - Another example Newly allocated regions of
computer memory are often standardly initialized
to all 0s. - Information that a system is just in the/a
standard state can be considered null
information. - It is not very informative
- There are more nonstandard states than standard
ones - Except in the case of isolated 2-state systems!
- However, pieces of information that are in
standard states can still be useful as clean
slates on which newly measured or computed
information can be recorded.
15Computing Information
- Computing, in the most general sense, is just the
time-evolution of any physical system. - Interactions between subsystems may cause
correlations to exist that didnt exist
previously. - E.g. bits a0 and b interact, assigning ab
- Bit a changes from a known, standard value (null
information with zero entropy) to a value that
correlates with b - When systems A,B interact in such a way that the
state of A is changed in a way that depends on
the state of B, - we can say that the information in A is being
computed from the old information that was in A
and B previously
16Decomputing Information
- When some piece of information has been computed
using a series of known interactions, - it will often be possible to perform another
series of interactions that will - undo the effects of some or all of the earlier
interactions, - and decompute the pattern of information
- restoring it to a standard state, if desired
- E.g., if the original interactions that took
place were thermodynamically reversible (did not
increase entropy) then - performing the original series of interactions,
inverted, is one way to restore the original
state. - There will generally be other ways also.
17Effective Entropy
- For any given entity A, the effective entropy
from As perspective, SA(B), in a given system B
is that part of the information contained in B
that A is unable to reversibly decompute (for
whatever reason). - Effective entropy also obeys a 2nd law.
- It always increases. Its the incompressible
info. - The law of increase of effective entropy remains
true for an combined system AB in which entityA
measures system B, even fromentity As own point
of view! - No outside entity C need bepostulated, unlike
the case fornormal statistical entropy.
A
B
0/1
0
A
B
0/1
0/1
18Advantages of Effective Entropy
- (Effective) entropy, defined as
non-reversibly-decomputable information, subsumes
the following - Unknown information (statistical entropy) Cant
be reversibly decomputed, because we dont even
know what its pattern is. - We dont have any other info that is correlated
with it. - Even if we measured it, it would just become
known but incompressible. - Known but incompressible information It cant be
reversibly decomputed because its
incompressible! - To reversibly decompute it would be to compress
it! - Inaccessible information Also cant be
decomputed, because we cant get to it! - E.g., a signal of known information, sent out
into space at c. - This simple yet powerful definition is, I submit,
the right way to understand entropy.
19Subsection II.B.5.cEntropy Increase and the
2nd Law of Thermodynamics
- The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, Proving the 2nd
Law, Maxwells Demon, Entropy and Measurement,
The Arrow of Time, Boltzmanns H-theorem
20Supremacy of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
- The law that entropy increasesthe Second Law of
Thermodynam-icsholds, I think, the supreme
position among the laws of Nature. If someone
points out to you that your pet theory of the
Universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's
equationsthen so much the worse for Maxwells
equations. If it is found to be contradicted by
observa-tionwell, these experimentalists do
bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is
found to be against the Second Law of
Thermodynam-ics I can give you no hope there is
nothing for it but to collapse in deepest
humiliation. - Sir Arthur Eddington, The Nature of the Physical
World. New York MacMillian 1930. - We will see that Eddington was basically right,
- because theres a certain sense in which the 2nd
Law can be viewed as a irrefutable mathematical
fact, namely a theorem of combinatorics, - not even a statement about physics at all!
21Brief History of the 2nd Law of Themodynamics
- Early versions of the law were based on centuries
of hard-won empirical experience, and had a
strong phenomenological flavor, e.g., - Perpetual motion machines are impossible.
- Heat always spontaneously flows from a hot body
to a colder one, never vice-versa. - No process can have as its sole effect the
transfer of heat from a cold body to a hotter
one. - After Clausius introduced the entropy concept,
the 2nd law could be made more quantitative and
more general - The entropy of any closed system cannot
decrease. - But, the underlying reason for the law remained
a mystery. - Today, thanks to more than a century of progress
in physics based on the pioneering work of
Maxwell, Boltzmann, and others, - we now well understand the underlying mechanical
and statistical reasons why the 2nd law must be
true.
22The 2nd Law of ThermodynamicsFollows from
Quantum Mechanics
- Closed systems evolve via unitary transforms
Ut1?t2. - Unitary transforms just change the basis, so they
do not change the systems true (von Neumann)
entropy. - Because, remember, it only depends on what the
Shannon entropy is in the diagonalized basis. - ? Theorem Entropy is constant in all closed
systems undergoing an exactly-known unitary
evolution. - However, if Ut1?t2 is ever at all uncertain, or
if we ever neglect or disregard some of our
information about the state, - Then we will get a mixture of possible resulting
states, with provably effective entropy. - ? Theorem (2nd law of thermodynamics) Entropy
may increase but never decreases in closed
systems - It can increase only if the system undergoes
interactions whose details are not completely
known, or if the observer discards some of his
knowledge.
23Maxwells Demonand Its Resolution
- A longstanding paradox in thermodynamics
- Why exactly cant you beat the 2nd law, reducing
the entropy of a system, by making measurements
on it? - Maxwells example of a demon who watches the
molecules of a gas and opens a door to sort them
into one side of a chamber - There were many attempted resolutions, all with
flaws, until - Bennett _at_ IBM (82) noted
- The information resulting fromthe measurement
must bedisposed of somewhere - This entropy is still present inthe demons
memory, until heexpels it into the environment! - Releasing entropy into theenvironment dissipates
energy!
24Entropy Measurement
- To clarify a widespread misconception
- The entropy (when defined as just unknown
information) in an otherwise-closed system B can
decrease (from the point of view of another
entity A) if A performs a reversible or
non-demolition measurement of Bs state. - Actual quantum non-demolition measurements have
been empirically demonstrated in carefully
controlled experiments. - But, such a decrease does not violate the 2nd
law! - There are several ways to understand why
- (1) System B isnt perfectly closed the
measurement requires an interaction! Bs entropy
has been moved away, not deleted. - (2) The entropy of the combined, closed AB
system does not decreasefrom the point of view
of an outside entity C who is not measuring AB. - (3) From As point of view, entropydefined as
unknownincompressibleinformation (Zurek) has
not decreased.
25Reversibility of Physics
- The universe is (apparently) a closed system.
- Closed systems always evolve via unitary
transforms! - Apparent wavefunction collapse doesnt contradict
this (established by work of Everett, Zurek,
etc.) - The time-evolution of the concrete state of the
universe (or any closed subsystem) is therefore
reversible - By which (here) we mean invertible (bijective)
- Deterministic looking backwards in time
- Total info. content I of poss. states does
not decrease - It can increase, though, if the volume is
increasing - Thus, information cannot be destroyed!
- It can only be invertibly manipulated
transformed! - However, it can be mixed up with other info, lost
track of, sent away into space, etc. - Originally-uncomputable information can thereby
become (effective) entropy.
26Arrow of Time Paradox
- An apparent but false paradox, asking
- If physics is reversible, how is it possible
that entropy can increase only in one time
direction? - This question results from misunderstandings of
the meaning implications of reversible in this
context. - First, to clarify, reversibility (here meaning
reverse-determinism) does not imply time-reversal
symmetry. - Which would mean that physics is unchanged under
negation of time coordinate. - In a reversible system, the time-reversed
dynamics does not have to be identical to the
forward-time dynamics, just deterministic. - However, it happens that the Standard Model is
essentially time-reversal symmetric - If we simultaneously negate charges, and reflect
one space coordinate. - This is more precisely called CPT
(charge-parity-time) symmetry. - I have heard that General Relativity is not
time-reversal symmetric or even reversible, but
Im not quite sure yet - But anyway, even when time-reversal symmetry is
present, if the initial state is defined to have
a low max. entropy ( of poss. states), there is
only room for entropy to increase in one time
direction away from the initial state. - As the universe expands, the volume and maximum
entropy of a given region of space
increases. - Thus, entropy increases in that time direction.
- If you simulate a reversible and time-reversal
symmetric dynamics on a computer, state
complexity (practically-incompressible info.,
thus entropy) still empirically increases
only in one direction (away from a simple initial
state). - There is a simple combinatorial explanation for
this behavior, namely - There are always a greater number of more-complex
than less-complex states to go to!
27CRITTERS Cellular Automaton
Movie at http//www.ai.mit.edu/people/nhm/crit.AVI
- A cellular automaton (CA) is a discrete, local
dynamical system. - The CRITTERS CA uses the Margolus neighborhood
technique. - On even steps, the black 22 blocks are updated
- On odd steps, the red blocks are updated
- All block updates are reversible!
- CRITTERS update rules
- A block with 2 1s is unchanged.
- A block with 3 1s is rotated 180 and
complemented. - Other blocks are complemented.
- This rule, as given, is not time-reversal
symmetric, - But if you complement all cells after each step,
it becomes so.
Margolus Neighborhood
(Plus all rotatedversions of thesecases.)
28Essence of the H-Theorem
- Theorem Given a state of a reversible dynamical
system having less than the maximum entropy, with
high probability, the next state will have higher
entropy. - I.e., the 2nd law follows from reversibility.
- The conceptual essence of Boltzmanns H-theorem
is basically just this - First, we observe that there are more
higher-entropy microstates than lower-entropy
ones. - Proof Trivial counting argument on min-length
state descriptions. - Thus, the higher-entropy states are, a priori,
more likely. - If the dynamics is reversible (and not
stationary), all of these states are indeed
reachable from others via the dynamics, - since every state has a predecessor (a unique
one, in fact). - Therefore, conditioned on the entropy of the
current state, - whatever that entropy value is, unless it is
already maximal, - it is more likely that the next state will be one
with higher entropy than the current state, than
one with lower entropy. - Note this is true regardless of the details of
the dynamics!
29Simplified H-theorem Scenario
- Let S be a maximal set of mutually
distinguishable states along some dynamical orbit
for a given system. - For any specific state s?S, let s' denote its
successor, 's its predecessor. - Assume a compression system cS?0,1
- A bijective map between states and their
maximally-compressed bit-string descriptions. - For any specific state s, its generalized entropy
is S0 S(s) K(s) c(s). - Note there are exactly 2S states having entropy
S, if all length-S bit-strings are valid descs - This is also the relative prior probability that
a state has entropy S - given no other information about the state.
- Now, consider the conditional probability that
the successor state s' has probability S1, given
the entropy of s. That is, PrS(s') S1
S(s)S0. - By the definition of conditional probability,
this is just PrS(s)S0 ? S(s')S1 /
PrS(s)S0. - If we know nothing about the dynamics, the events
S(s)S0 and S(s')S1 are independent, - so this simplifies to just PrS(s')S1.
- This is greater, the larger S1 is.
- Now, suppose we only know about the dynamics that
it is such that the entropy can change by at most
1 bit on each step. - Then, the only possibilities for the new entropy
are S1 S0, S1 S01, and S1 S0 - 1. - Rel probs. PrS(s')S0 ? 20 1,
PrS(s')S01 ? 21 2, and PrS(s')S0-1 ? 2-1
½. - Normalized, the probabilities for these cases are
2/7, 4/7, and 1/7 respectively. - After N steps, the entropy will be greater than
S0 by N bits with probability (4/7)N, and less
than S0 by N bits with probability (1/7)N. - It is 4N times more likely to become N bits
greater than it is to become N bits less!
30Evolution of Entropy Distribution
From a spreadsheetsimulation based on the
resultsfrom the previous slide.
31Example An Arbitrary Reversible Dynamics on
4-bit Strings
- Chosen randomly, w. constraint that state
complexity changes by at most 1per step
1010
0010
1110
0001
000
1100
110
0011
K4
001
00
K3
1011
K2
01
K1
1000
011
K0
111
0
1
0101
e
11
10
0000
010
100
1001
101
0100
0111
0110
1111
1101
32Entropy Increase in this Simple Example
- In the example on the previous slide,
- For states with complexity K2 bits, note that
- 2/4 (00,10) go to higher-complexity states ?
Most likely! - 1/4 (01) goes to an equal-complexity state
- 1/4 (11) goes to a lower-complexity state
- For states with complexity K3 bits,
- 5/8 (000,110,001,101,011) go to higher-complexity
states ? Most likely! - 1/8 (111) goes to an equal-complexity state
- 3/8th or 3 (010, 100) go to lower-complexity
states - For maximum-complexity (K4) states,
- 11/16 stay at the same complexity ? Most likely!
- Only 5/16 go to lower-complexity states
- Even in this very simple example, we can see that
Boltzmanns H-theorem (and the 2nd law) are
vindicated! - States with less than the maximum entropy (here,
complexity) are more likely to go to
higher-entropy states than to lower-entropy ones! - This is true even though the dynamics is
perfectly reversible!
33Reversibility Doesnt Contradict the Law of
Entropy Increase!
- An attempted objection
- But, if the dynamics is reversible, and the
state space is finite, then all trajectories form
closed cyclical orbits, and around any particular
closed orbit, the entropy must decrease as much
as it increases! - This is true, but yet, it doesnt contradict the
H-theorem! - Because, given a random low-entropy state, its
relatively likely that entropy increases (as
opposed to decreases) in both directions away
from that state! - Thus, in either direction (forwards or backwards)
starting from the state, its more likely a
priori that entropy will increase in that
direction than that it will decrease!
Another orbit
An orbit
Plenty of statesw. gtK0 entropy
K gt K0
Given That currentstate has entropy K0
K K0
Not so many statesw. ltK0 entropy
K lt K0
In many states at K0, the complexity will be at a
local minimum!
34Entropy Increase Summary
- In reversible dynamical systems, effective
entropy increases (away from a given low-entropy
initial state) for two reasons - Effective entropy that is due to the complexity
(incompressible size) of any given state most
likely increases, - Simply because there are more complex states than
simple ones! - (essence of Boltzmanns H-theorem)
- Effective entropy that is due to uncertainty
about the exact identity of the current state
also increases, - Since the dynamics is not perfectly known, and
- we may discard some of our knowledge about the
state. - In contrast, in an irreversible dynamics, entropy
increase wouldnt be assured at all, - because a large set of possible, complex initial
states could all converge on a small set of final
states having low complexity. - Thus, in a sense, the reversibility of physics is
crucial for the increasing complexity of the
universe! (e.g., for the emergence of life)
35Subsection II.B.5.dEquilibrium States and the
Boltzmann Distribution
36Equilibrium
- Due to the 2nd law, the entropy of any closed,
constant-volume system (with not-precisely-known
interactions) increases until it approaches its
maximum entropy I log N. - But the rate of approach to equilibrium varies
greatly, depending on the precise scenario being
modeled. - Maximum-entropy states are called equilibrium
states. - We saw earlier that entropy is maximized by
uniform probability distributions. - ? Theorem (Fundamental assumption of statistical
mechanics.) Systems at equilibrium have an equal
probability of being in each of their possible
states. - Proof The uniform distribution is the one with
the maximum entropy! Thus, it is the equilibrium
state. - Since energy is conserved, this only holds for
states of equal total energy
37The Boltzmann Distribution
- Consider a system A described in a basis in which
not all basis states are assigned the same
energy. - E.g., choose a basis consisting of energy
eigenstates. - Suppose we know of a system A (in addition to its
basis set) only that our expectation of its
average energy E if measured to have a certain
value E0 - Due to conservation of energy, if EE0 initially,
this must remain true, so long as A is a
closed system. - Jaynes (1957) showed that for a system at
temperature T, the maximum entropy probability
distribution P that is consistent with this
constraint is the one in which - This same distribution was derived earlier, but
in a less general scenario, by Boltzmann. - Thus, at equilibrium, systems will have this
distribution over state sets that do not all have
the same energy. - Does not contradict the uniform equilibrium
distribution from earlier, because that was a
distribution over specific distinguishable states
that are all individually consistent with our
description (in this case, that all have energy
E0).
38Proof of Boltzmann Distribution
- For the case of a small system with 2 states
separated by energy ?E, interacting thermally
with a much larger system (thermal reservoir) at
temperature T. - Assume the compound system is at equilibrium.
- Due to energy conservation, when the small system
is in the higher energy state, the large system
has ?E less energy. - Therefore, in this condition, the reservoir also
has ?S ?E/T less entropy, by the original
(Clausius) definition of entropy. - There are Exp?S Exp?E/T e?E/kT times
fewer possible states that have ?S less entropy
(by Boltzmanns definition of entropy) - Thus, the probability of this condition is only
e-?E/kT times as great!
Large External System(Environment,Thermal
Reservoir,Heat Bath)
Thermal
E?
?E
interaction
G?
Two-state system
39Subsection II.B.5.dThe Concept of Temperature
40Temperature at Equilibrium
- Recall that the of states of a compound system
AB is the product of the of states of A and of
B. - ? the total information I(AB) I(A)I(B)
- Combining this with the 1st law of thermo.
(conservation of energy) one can show (Stowe 9A)
that two constant-volume subsystems that are at
equilibrium with each other (so that IS) must
share a property (?S/?E)V. - Assuming no mechanical or diffusive interactions
take place. - (Marginal) Temperature is then defined as the
reciprocal of this quantity, T 1/(?S/?E)V
(?E/?S)V. - Energy increase needed per unit increase in
entropy. - Definition is for the case where volume V is held
constant - Since increasing volume provides another way to
increase the entropy.
41Generalized Temperature
- Any increase in the entropy of a system at
maximum entropy implies an increase in that
systems total information content, - since total information content is the same thing
as maximum entropy. - But, a system that is not at its maximum entropy
is nothing other than just the very same system, - only in a situation where some of its state
information just happens to be known (or
compressible) by the observer! - And, note that the total information content
itself does not depend on the observers
knowledge about the systems state, - only on the very definition of the system.
- ? adding dE energy even to a non-equilibrium
system must increase its total information I by
the very same amount, dS! - So, ?I/?E in any non-equilibrium system equals
?S/?E of the same system, if it were at
equilibrium. - So, we can redefine temperature, more generally,
as T?E/?I. - Note this definition applies to all systems,
whether at equilibrium or not!
dE energy
System _at_temperature T
dI dE/T information
42Extending the Definition Further
- Suppose a subsystem at temperature T emits a
small packet of energy ?E, and undergoes an
associated decrease ?I ?E/T of information
content. - However, the total information content of any
constant-volume enclosing system does not change. - Thus, that packet of emitted energy must contain
the information ?I that was lost from the
subsystem. - And furthermore, we note that that packet could
have come from anywhere inside the subsystem. - Thus, it seems not a far stretch to say that
every piece of energy ?E in the subsystem
contains an associated piece ?I ?E/T of the
subsystems information content. - Thus, we can abandon the differential operator,
and just say that the generalized temperature T
E/I. (Sum the pieces.) - For now, we will assume that this is at least
approximately valid. - Some of our later results may need to be modified
if it is not.
Note This seems to not be exactly valid for a
fermi gas, see CORP slides.
43Temperature Kinetic Energy
I hid this slide because I havent covered the
computationalinterpretation of momentum yet,
which I use here.
- Consider any generalized position coordinate q in
a system, with any fixed (but large) range of
values. - I.e., any constrained degree of freedom (d.o.f.).
- Generalized particle in a box scenario.
- Consider a definite value of associated momentum
p. - Momentum is the number of ops per unit length
(generalizable). - Thus, the number n of distinguishable states
traversed while crossing the box is n p.
(Specifically, given range ?, we have n ?p/o
2?p/h.) - The information content I associated with the
d.o.f. is defined as the logarithm of the number
of states, I log n. - Thus, with klog e, we have n eI/k, so p
eI/k. (where ?) - The associated kinetic energy is E p2 e2I/k ?
E ce2I/k. - Nonrelativistically for any mass-m coordinate, E
p2/2m. - Thus, the generalized temperature of that
specific degree of freedom is T ?E/?I
(2/k)ce2I/k 2E/k. - So, the kinetic energy in that degree of freedom
is E ½kT.
44Subsection II.B.5.eThe Nature of Heat
- Energy, Heat, Chill, and Work
45Energy, Heat, Chill, and Work
- The total energy E of a system (in a given frame)
can be determined from its total
inertial-gravitational mass m (in that frame)
using E mc2. - Most textbooks will tell you unlike total energy,
the total heat content in a system cant be
defined, but I think this is just due to lack of
trying - We can define the heat content H of a system as
that part of E whose state information is all
entropy. - I.e., the part of E that is in the subsystem w.
all the entropy, and no extropy. - The state of that part of the energy is unknown
and/or incompressible. - For systems at uniform temperature T, we have H
(S/I)E ST. - For lack of a better word, we could also define
the chill contentof a system as C E - H. - Chill is thus any energy whose state
information is all extropy. - Thus, in principle, chill can be converted into
energy in any desired (standard) state. - We can define work content WC as that part of
the chill that can actually be practically
converted into other forms as needed, given
available physical mechanisms. - E.g., gravitational potential energy can be
considered work content, but most rest
mass-energy is not. - Unless we have some antimatter handy!
Need to write a memoformalizing this
heatcontent notion
46Subsection II.B.5.fReversible Heat Enginesand
the Carnot Cycle
- Ideal Extraction of Work from Heat, Carnot Cycle
47Not All Heat is Unusable!
- Heat engines can extract work from the heat
contained in high-temperature systems! - by isolating the entropy from theheat into a
lower-temperature reservoir - using a smaller amount of heat.
- Optimal reversible (Carnot cycle) engines
recover a fraction (TH?TL)/TH of the heat as
work. - Lowest-T capacious reservoirs
- atmosphere (300 K) or space (3 K).
- We would like to distinguish energy that is
potentially recoverable from energy that isnt...
Reservoir athigh temp. TH
S
HeatHHSTH
WorkWS(TH?TL)
HeatHLSTL
S
Reservoir atlow temp. TL
48The Carnot Cycle
- In 1822-24, Sadi Carnot (an engineer) analyzed
the efficiency of an ideal heat engine all of
whose steps were thermodynamically reversible,
and managed to prove that, when operating between
any two thermal reservoirs at temperatures TH and
TL - Any reversible engine (regardless of its internal
details) must have the same efficiency
(TH?TL)/TH. - No engine could have greater efficiency than a
reversible engine w/o making it possible to
convert heat to work with no side effects - which would violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics
- Temperature itself could be defined on an
absolute thermodynamic scale based on heat
recoverable by a reversible engine operating
between TH and TL. - Carnots work was particularly impressive since,
at the time, the concept of entropy hadnt been
discovered, and they still thought that heat was
a substance (caloric).
49Steps of Carnot Cycle
P
- Isothermal expansion at TH
- Adiabatic expansion TH?TL
- Latin for without flow of heat
- Isothermal compression at TL
- Adiabatic compression TL?TH
TH
TL
Contact tocold body
V
Adiabaticexpan-sion
Isothermalexpansion(in contactw. hot body)
Isolatechamber
Isothermalcompression
Isolatechamber
Adiabaticcompres-sion
50Subsection II.B.5.gFree Energy
- Spent energy, Unspent energy, Internal Energy,
Free Energy, Helmholtz Free Energy, Gibbs Free
Energy
51Free Energy vs. Spent Energy
- If TL is the temperature of the
lowest-temperature available thermal reservoir, - with an effectively unlimited capacity for
storing entropy, - The spent energy Espent in a system is defined as
the total entropy S in the system, times TL, that
is, Espent STL. - Motivation At least this much energy must be
committed to the reservoir in order to eventually
dispose of the entropy S. - Note Once some energy is spent, its gone
forever! - Unless a lower-temperature reservoir becomes
available at a later time. - The unspent energy Eunsp is total energy Etot
minus spent energy, Eunsp Etot - Espent. Etot
- STL. - This is the energy that could be converted into
chill, in principle. - Note this may include some of the heat, if body
is above temperature T. - However, not all of the unspent energy may be
practically accessible e.g., rest mass-energy
tied up in massive particles. - We can then define the free energy F in a system
as the part of the unspent energy that is
actually realistically accessible for conversion
into other forms, as needed.
52Internal Energy
- Internal energy in traditional thermodynamics
textbooks is usually defined, somewhat
ambiguously, to include - Heat content (though this itself is usually left
undefined) - Internal kinetic energies (of e.g. internal
moving parts) - Internal potential energies (e.g. chemical
energies) - But not the net kinetic/potential energies of the
whole system relative to its environment (this is
reasonable) - And (strangely) not most of the rest of a
systems total rest mass-energy! - However, the supposed distinction between the
rest mass-energy and the vaguely-defined
internal energy is somewhat illusory! - Since relativity teaches us that all the energy
in a stationary system contributes to that
systems rest mass! (E mc2 again) - Other authors try to define internal energy as
being relative to the lowest energy state of
the system, - But, lowest energy with respect to what class of
transformations? - Chemical? Nuclear? Annihilation with
antimatter? Absorption into a black hole? - I say, abolish the traditional vague definition
of internal energy from thermodynamics entirely! - Redefine internal energy to be a synonym for the
total rest mass-energy of a system. - Not including potential energy of interactions
with surroundings. - Use the phrase accessible internal energy Eacc,
when needed, to refer to that part of the rest
mass that we currently know how to extract and
convert to other forms. - The part that is not forever tied up encoding,
say, conserved quarks and leptons.
53Helmholtz and Gibbs Free Energies
- Helmholtz free energy FHelm is essentially the
same as our definition of free energy - Except that the usual definitions of Helmholtz
free energy depend on some vaguely-defined
concept of internal energy Eint (or U). - The usual definition is FHelm Eint - Espent
Eint - STenv. - If we replace this with our clearer concept of
the accessible part of rest mass-energy, the
definitions become the same. - Gibbs free energy is just Helmholtz free energy,
plus the potential energy of interaction with a
large surrounding medium at pressure p. - For a system of volume V, this interaction energy
is pV, - Since, if the system could be adiabatically
compressed to zero volume, the medium would
deliver pV work into it during such compression. - Since VA? (area A, length ?), and work
WF?pA?pV (force F). - The surrounding mediums volume doesnt change by
a significant factor during the compression, thus
it can be assumed to be at constant pressure. - Thus, FGibbs Eint - STenv pV.
54Breakdown of Energy Components
Echill E-H Chill, energy whose state
information is extropy (compressible).
W Work content, the part of the chill that is
accessible
H STsys Heat content, energy whose state
info. is entropy.
Etot E Total system energy.
P Potential energy ofinteraction w.
surroundings(delocalized)
Eobj mobjc2 Total localized energy.
Emot Motional energy
Emot Functional energy
K Systems overall kinetic energy relative to
its environ-ment (in a given reference frame)
E0 m0c2 Rest mass-energy
Eint U Internal energy accessible rest
energy
Einacc Inaccessible part of rest mass-energy
(tied up in massive particles)
EpV pV Energy of interactionw. surrounding
medium at pressure p.
Espent STenv Spent energy,energy needed to
expel internal entropy
F U-ST Helmholtz free energy
FGibbs F pV Gibbsfree energy
55Key Points to Rememberon Thermodynamics
- Many of the important concepts and principles of
thermodynamics can be well understood from the
perspective of (quantum) information theory. - Energy is the conserved Hamiltonian quantity that
generates quantum evolution. - Entropy and extropy (decomputable information)
are but two sides of the same coin information! - At a fundamental level they are relative to the
observers state of knowledge, available
computing techniques, and information encodings - i.e., available physical manipulations.
- Total amount of information content log(
states), - Total information content is conserved in any
system that is defined to have a time-independent
state space. - Effective entropy (non-decomputable information)
includes traditional statistical entropy and
Zurek entropy (incompressible information). - Statistical entropy can be calculated given a
density matrix - Special cases Probability distribution, or
state-subset - Known states can have Zurek entropy in the
context of a given encoding. - Effective entropy always (or almost always)
increases (2nd law of thermodynamics) for
fundamental combinatorial and statistical
reasons. - Independent of the precise laws of physics Holds
true in any reversible dynamics! - (Generalized) Temperature Energy per unit of
physical information. - Usually, we focus on marginal temperature, which
is energy/info ratio for small increments of
energy into out of a system - Marginal temperature is what is uniform for
systems at equilibrium - Heat Energy whose state information is entropy.
- Chill Energy whose state information is
extropy. - Free energy Energy that is chill, or that can
be converted into chill.