Researchers have made a breakthrough in applying the first law of thermodynamics to complex systems. The law is a bedrock of physics, but has long failed to describe systems that are out of ...

Image of argon plasma glowing a bluish color in an experiment at the WVU Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics. (Credit: WVU Photo/Brian Persinger) The four laws of thermodynamics are an established ...

West Virginia University physicists have made a breakthrough on an age-old limitation of the first law of thermodynamics. Paul Cassak, professor and associate director of the Center for KINETIC Plasma ...

The laws of thermodynamics don't accurately account for the complex processes in living cells – do we need a new one to ...

Thermodynamics was built to describe steam engines and stars, yet the same equations now sit at the heart of quantum ...

"What got you into astrophysics?" It's a question I'm often asked at outreach events, and I answer by pointing to my early passion for exploring the biggest questions about our universe. Well, along ...

The light interacts with the cavity and makes an arbitrary number of bounces before leaking out. This emergent light is traditionally treated as heat in quantum simulations. However, it can still be ...

Recent research reveals that quantum mechanics can supersede the second law of thermodynamics at the atomic scale, challenging long-held principles of entropy and energy dissipation in microscopic ...