What is heat?: micro-reversibility and thermalization in collisional thermal baths

What is heat?: micro-reversibility and thermalization in collisional thermal baths

Seminar author:Juan M. R. Parrondo

Event date and time:03/13/2020 12:00:pm

Event location:GIQ Seminar Room

Event contact:parrondo@fis.ucm.es

The usual model for collisional thermal baths consists of a system interacting with small units drawn from a reservoir. The interaction must be switched on and off and this operation can involve the exchange of energy between the system and the external agent that connects and disconnects the interaction, and this energy has been considered work. Here we show that one can devise a complete and autonomous model of the collisional reservoir, taking into account the translational degrees of freedom of the reservoir units.  The example illustrates the subtleness in the definition of heat, which is not just an academic debate, but it determines the capacity of certain energy input to perform work.