Does the second law hold at cosmic scales?

Abstract

The second law of thermodynamics is known to hold at small scales also when gravity plays a leading role, as in the case of black holes and self-gravitating radiation spheres. It has been suggested that it should as well at large scales. Here, by a purely kinematic analysis \textemdash based on the history of the Hubble factor and independent of any cosmological model \textemdash , we explore if this law is fulfilled in the case of homogeneous and isotropic universes regardless of the sign of the spatial curvature.

References in corpus (7)

• Raising the bar: new constraints on the Hubble parameter with cosmic chronometers at z$\sim$2
• Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Lyα forest of BOSS DR11 quasars
• Unified First Law and Thermodynamics of Apparent Horizon in FRW Universe
• Hubble parameter measurement constraints on the redshift of the deceleration-acceleration transition, dynamical dark energy, and space curvature
• Improved Constraints on the Acceleration History of the Universe and the Properties of the Dark Energy
• The generalized second law of thermodynamics and cosmological decoherence
• Quantum Statistical Inference

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Non-zero torsion and late cosmology
• Horizon thermodynamics in holographic cosmological models with a power-law term
• Entropy production due to adiabatic particle creation in a holographic dissipative cosmology
• Evolution of dissipative and non-dissipative universes in holographic cosmological models with a power-law term