Entropy Revisited: the Plausible Role of Gravitation
arXiv:cond-mat/9905403 · doi:10.1016/S0375-9601(99)00256-X
Abstract
We first present open questions related to the foundations of thermodynamics and statistical physics. We then argue that in principle one can not have "closed systems", and that a universal background should exist. We propose that the gravitational field plays this role, due to its vanishing energy-momentum tensor. This leads to a new possible picture, in which entropy and irreversibility in macroscopic systems emerge from their coupling to the background gravitational field.
10 pages