Mathematical Representation of Clausius' and Kelvin's Statements of the Second Law and Irreversibility

Abstract

We provide a stochastic mathematical representation for Clausius' and Kelvin-Planck's statements of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in terms of the entropy productions of a finite, compact driven Markov system and its lift. A surjective map is rigorously established through the lift when the state space is either a discrete graph or a continuous n-dimensional torus T^n. The corresponding lifted processes have detailed balance thus a natural potential function but no stationary probability. We show that in the long-time limit the entropy production of the finite driven system precisely equals the potential energy decrease in the lifted system. This theorem provides a dynamic foundation for the two equivalent statements of Second Law of Thermodynamics, a la Kelvin's and Clausius'. It suggests a modernized, combined statement: "A mesoscopic engine that works in completing irreversible internal cycles statistically has necessarily an external effect that lowering a weight accompanied by passing heat from a warmer to a colder body."

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