Negative absolute temperatures and Carnot cycles
- 1 April 1976
- journal article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Journal of Physics A: General Physics
- Vol. 9 (4) , 605-609
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0305-4470/9/4/017
Abstract
Properties of a thermodynamic phase space, for which both positive and negative absolute temperatures have been defined, are discussed. The conclusions reached are applied to Carnot cycles and it is found to be impossible to operate such cycles when one of the heat reservoirs has an infinite temperature. It is shown also that such cycles may be run only in particular cases when the temperatures of the reservoirs are such that one is positive and the other negative.Keywords
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