Physical Transformation AtlasPTA
Constraint · constraint:second-law

Second law of thermodynamics

The reason uniform thermal energy and the quantum vacuum are not resources.

Atlas record: 4 claims reference this constraint — 4 established.

Explorerelations · sources · cite

ΔS_universe ≥ 0; no cyclic device can extract work from a single reservoir

4claims0enumerated routes0routes with complete-composition evidence0candidate routes not searched5cited sources

Relations

bounded by · 4
Thermal energy at uniform temperature—bounded by→Second law of thermodynamicsestablished
  • a single reservoir at one temperature
No cyclic process extracts work from a single reservoir. Recorded so that the matrix row can show "forbidden" rather than "unknown".
Quantum vacuum fluctuations—bounded by→Second law of thermodynamicsestablished
  • the vacuum is the ground state; there is no lower state to relax into
Casimir effect—bounded by→Second law of thermodynamicsestablished
Information-to-work conversion—bounded by→Second law of thermodynamicsestablished

Cited sources · 5

  1. [1]
    A. Bejan. Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics (4th ed.) (2016)
    Wiley · doi:10.1002/9781119245964 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record
  2. [2]
    S. K. Lamoreaux. Demonstration of the Casimir force in the 0.6 to 6 μm range (1997)
    Physical Review Letters 78, 5 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.5 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record
  3. [3]
    M. Bordag, U. Mohideen, V. M. Mostepanenko. New developments in the Casimir effect (2001)
    Physics Reports 353, 1–205 · doi:10.1016/S0370-1573(01)00015-1 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record
  4. [4]
    S. Toyabe et al.. Experimental demonstration of information-to-energy conversion and validation of the generalized Jarzynski equality (2010)
    Nature Physics 6, 988–992 · doi:10.1038/nphys1821 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record
  5. [5]
    J. M. R. Parrondo, J. M. Horowitz, T. Sagawa. Thermodynamics of information (2015)
    Nature Physics 11, 131–139 · doi:10.1038/nphys3230 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record

Cite this entity

Physical Transformation Atlas (2026). entity constraint:second-law: Second law of thermodynamics. Dataset revision rbfbfcbb70e57 (hash of the canonical data). https://physical-transformation-atlas.wldud5192.workers.dev/e/constraint/second-law

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