Entropy 2008, 10(3), 380-390; doi:10.3390/e10030380
Article

The Second Entropy: A Variational Principle for Time-dependent Systems

Phil Attardemail
School of Chemistry F11, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia
Received: 3 May 2008 / Accepted: 4 September 2008 / Published: 25 September 2008
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Concepts of Entropy and Their Applications - Papers presented at the Meeting at University of Melbourne, 26 November - 11 December 2007)
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Abstract: The fundamental optimization principle for non-equilibrium thermodynamics is given. The second entropy is introduced as the quantity that is maximised to determine the optimum state of a non-equilibrium system. In contrast, the principles of maximum or minimum dissipation, which have previously been proposed by Onsager, Prigogine, and others as the variational principle for such systems, are shown to be incapable of fulfilling that rôle.
Keywords: entropy; second law; non-equilibrium

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MDPI and ACS Style

Attard, P. The Second Entropy: A Variational Principle for Time-dependent Systems. Entropy 2008, 10, 380-390.

AMA Style

Attard P. The Second Entropy: A Variational Principle for Time-dependent Systems. Entropy. 2008; 10(3):380-390.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Attard, Phil. 2008. "The Second Entropy: A Variational Principle for Time-dependent Systems." Entropy 10, no. 3: 380-390.

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