Minimum Entropy Production Effect on a Quantum Scale

Abstract

The discovery of quantized electric conductance by the group of van Wees in 1988 was a major breakthrough in physics. A decade later, the group of Schwab has proven the existence of quantized thermal conductance. Advancing from these and many other aspects of the quantized conductances in other phenomena of nature, the concept of quantized entropy current can be established and it eases the description of a transferred quantized energy package. This might yield a universal transport behavior of the microscopic world. During the transfer of a single energy quantum, hν, between two neighboring domains, the minimum entropy increment is calculated. It is pointed out that the possible existence of the minimal entropy transfer can be formulated. Moreover, as a new result, it is proved that this minimal entropy transfer principle is equivalent to the Lagrangian description of thermodynamics.