Out of equilibrium: understanding cosmological evolution to lower-entropy states
Aug, 2011
27 pages
Published in:
- JCAP 02 (2012) 024
e-Print:
- 1108.0417 [hep-th]
Report number:
- CALT-68-2845
View in:
Citations per year
Abstract: (arXiv)
Despite the importance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, it is not absolute. Statistical mechanics implies that, given sufficient time, systems near equilibrium will spontaneously fluctuate into lower-entropy states, locally reversing the thermodynamic arrow of time. We study the time development of such fluctuations, especially the very large fluctuations relevant to cosmology. Under fairly general assumptions, the most likely history of a fluctuation out of equilibrium is simply the CPT conjugate of the most likely way a system relaxes back to equilibrium. We use this idea to elucidate the spacetime structure of various fluctuations in (stable and metastable) de Sitter space and thermal anti-de Sitter space.Note:
- 27 pages, 11 figures
- space: anti-de Sitter
- space: de Sitter
- time: asymmetry
- thermodynamics: fluctuation
- statistical mechanics
- CPT
- fluctuation: thermal
- field theory: conformal
- black hole: evaporation
- false vacuum: bubble
References(57)
Figures(12)