Alexander A. Alemi, Ian Fischer
In this work we offer a framework for reasoning about a wide class of existing objectives in machine learning. We develop a formal correspondence between this work and thermodynamics and discuss its implications.
Read more at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1807.04162.pdf
Category Archives: Thermodynamics
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Professor Mike Merrifield discusses aspects of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Referencing the work of Kelvin and Clausius, among others!
Professor Merrifield is the Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham.
Do we know what the temperature is?
Jiri J. Mares
Temperature, the central concept of thermal physics, is one of the most frequently employed physical quantities in common practice. Even though the operative methods of the temperature measurement are described in detail in various practical instructions and textbooks, the rigorous treatment of this concept is almost lacking in the current literature. As a result, the answer to a simple question of “what the temperature is” is by no means trivial and unambiguous. There is especially an appreciable gap between the temperature as introduced in the frame of statistical theory and the only experimentally observable quantity related to this concept, phenomenological temperature. Just the logical and epistemological analysis of the present concept of phenomenological temperature is the kernel of the contribution.
Read more at https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1604/1604.05563.pdf
What is the Entropy in Entropic Gravity?
Sean M. Carroll, Grant N. Remmen
Abstract
We investigate theories in which gravity arises as an entropic force. We distinguish between two approaches to this idea: holographic gravity, in which Einstein’s equation arises from keeping entropy stationary in equilibrium under variations of the geometry and quantum state of a small region, and thermodynamic gravity, in which Einstein’s equation emerges as a local equation of state from constraints on the area of a dynamical lightsheet in a fixed spacetime background.
Examining holographic gravity, we argue that its underlying assumptions can be justified in part using recent results on the form of the modular energy in quantum field theory. For thermodynamic gravity, on the other hand, we find that it is difficult to formulate a self-consistent definition of the entropy, which represents an obstacle for this approach. This investigation points the way forward in understanding the connections between gravity and entanglement (…)
Conclusions
The idea that gravity can be thought of as an entropic force is an attractive one. In this paper we have distinguished between two different ways of implementing this idea: holographic gravity, which derives the Einstein equation from constraints on the boundary entanglement after varying over different states in the theory, and thermodynamic gravity, which relates the time evolution of a cross-sectional area to the entropy passing through a null surface in a specified spacetime.
We argued that holographic gravity is a consistent formulation and indeed that recent work on the modular hamiltonian in quantum field theory provides additional support for its underlying assumptions. The thermodynamic approach, on the other hand, seems to suffer from a difficulty in providing a self-consistent definition for what the appropriate entropy is going to be.
In the title of this work, we asked, “What is the entropy in entropic gravity?” We are now equipped to answer this question. In what we have called “holographic gravity,” the vacuum subtracted von Neumann entanglement entropy (the Casini entropy), evaluated on the null surfaces of the causal diamond, provides an appropriate formulation for an entropic treatment of gravitation. This can help guide further attempts to understand the underlying microscopic degrees of freedom giving rise to gravitation in general spacetime backgrounds.
… Read more at http://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.07558v1.pdf
