Status of the fundamental laws of thermodynamics

Abstract

We describe recent progress towards deriving the Fundamental Laws of thermodynamics (the 0th, 1st, and 2nd Law) from nonequilibrium quantum statistical mechanics in simple, yet physically relevant models. Along the way, we clarify some basic thermodynamic notions and discuss various reversible and irreversible thermodynamic processes from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007.