Physicists at West Virginia University have overcome a long-standing limitation of the first law of thermodynamics. Paul Cassak, a professor and associate director of the Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics at West Virginia University, and Hasan Barbhuiya, a graduate research assistant in the Depar
Research findings led by Paul Cassak, WVU professor and associate director of the WVU Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics, have broken new ground on how scientists can understand the first law of thermodynamics and how plasmas in space and laboratories get heated. In this photo, argon plasma glows a bluish color in a Center experiment. Credit: WVU Photo/Brian Persinger
The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but it can be converted into different forms. Likewise, in many areas of modern science, systems are not in equilibrium. For over 100 years, researchers have attempted to expand the first law for common materials not in equilibrium, but such theories only work when the system is nearly there — when the hot and cold water are almost mixed. The theories do not work, for example, in space plasmas, which are far from equilibrium.“We generalized the first law of thermodynamics for systems that are not in equilibrium,” Cassak said.
“Because the first law of thermodynamics is so widely used,” Barbhuiya said, “it is our hope that scientists in a wide array of fields could use our result.” Likewise, the breakthrough he and Barbhuiya have made will change the landscape of plasma and space physics, a feat that doesn’t happen often.
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