Out of equilibrium: understanding cosmological evolution to lower-entropy states

Details Out of equilibrium: understanding cosmological evolution to lower-entropy states Out of equilibrium: understanding cosmological evolution to lower-entropy states

2011-08-01

arxiv.org/abs/1108.0417v1

Physics

High Energy Physics

High Energy Physics - Theory

27 pages, 11 figures

Scientific paper

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.

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