Heat death Definition and 36 Threads

I would like to ask a question about an interesting paper [1] back from the late 90's There, the authors propose how the universe may evolve from the near future to extremely far time scales Near the end of it (Section VI, D.), they discuss entropy and heat death: They indicate that contrary...

Apparently, among the options for the fate of the universe, the universe reaching heat death in the extremely far future is the most likely one, after the last black holes would have evaporated (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe) But, even if objects in extremely long...

Is entropy real? It seems like it's not real because it depends on how you group microstates together into a macrostate, and the way you group them can be arbitrary. For example (at 13:04 of the video below), there are 91,520 microstates in the macrostate “9 in left; 1 in right” but 627,264...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe Is the heat death of the universe completely unavoidable in an universe with an accelerated expansion dominated by dark energy like ours? Or can there be any way to avoid it according to current knowledge, observations and experiments...

I came upon a realization recently. The early universe is always described to have begun in a state of extremely low entropy and it's been increasing ever since. But the same amount of stuff exists now as it did back then. Only thing that's changed is how big the universe is now vs then. So...

If the universe keeps expanding and eventually ends in a "big freeze" or heat death, does this contradict the third law of thermodynamics? The third law of thermodynamics states that a crystal at absolute zero has zero entropy. Since the entropy of the universe can never decrease, as the age...

Hello guys, I was reading some models about the topology and size of the universe (always a controversial topic), then a question came to my mind. It is predicted that our universe will expand until it reaches heat death. Can a closed, finite universe also reach heat death and be described by...

Is there a meaningful way to convert the energy of an electromagnetic wave to a temperature? I mean this more along the lines of how the universe has a temperature of 2.7 kelvin due to electromagnetic radiation. I'm honestly just curious to determine the temperature of the universe after nearly...

Hi, layman here. As I understand, the theoretical Heat Death of the universe would imply that the accelerating space expansion reaches an expansion rate so big that it takes bodies and eventually even fundamental particles apart, leaving them alone up to an ultimate point in which no particle...

I know there are a few ways the universe can end, if it ever does, but at what temperature would the universe be in after heat death?

Let's assume that the universe will evolve over time to resemble the one predicted by heat death theorists. We're also assuming that the Big Bounce, Crunch, Rip etc. don't occur. Is it possible that while it resembles a heat death scenario, the heat death will never be total? That means: is it...

Assuming the law of thermodynamics holds true throughout the entirety of the universe, is it theoretically possible to engineer our own stars and solar systems, and would doing so prevent the proposed eventual "Dark Age" of the universe? We understand how stars are formed, so what's stopping us...

Wikipedia states that, after he heat death of the universe: "Random quantum fluctuations or quantum tunneling can produce another Big Bang in years." How would this work?

Dear PF Forum Can I ask something quoted from a closed thread? In a closed thread: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/predicted-heat-death-of-the-universe.824652/ This quote was presented by a Brian Cox. A scientist? And if he is, I'd like to ask this question. Is it technically possible...

Predicted Heat Death of the Universe In his thought provoking documentary “Wonder of the universe” ( ) Professor Brian Cox explains the thinking behind current predictions for the “Heat death of the universe”. He explains the predictions through the effect of the second law of thermodynamics...

And if not, what do you believe?

Difference between Heat Death and the "Big Freeze"? I'm a little confused. My understanding of the two is that once energy has been distributed evenly all through the universe from reactions and processes occurring, then there will be no more space for more energy to be distributed, and no more...

To experts in Bell's Theorem and Non-locality.. like DrChinese... what do you think of this. is there a way to refute it? http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/critical-opalescence/2013/11/18/cosmological-data-hint-at-a-level-of-physics-underlying-quantum-mechanics-guest-post/ Someone said...

Hello. I a few hours ago opened a new thread called "Big Crunch". But now that I've learn that it's not really possible for Big Crunch to happen, I also look for another possibilities. It looks like the best theory is Heat Death. It says that all stars will be dead the temperature will be the...

According to the third law of thermodynamics, one could argue that a vacuum has zero entropy, since it has only one ground state and a temperature at absolute zero. However, assuming the accelerated expansion of the universe to result in a 'heat death', i.e. a state of absolute thermal...

Is there a way to calculate the temperature of the heat death of the universe based on the total amount of energy currently in the universe. And if the total amount of energy in the universe is zero (compose dof equal and opposite parts) is it possible for the parts to cancel each other out and...

Hi all, as a complete noob, I must first ask that people understand that I have only a layman's understanding of cosmology. However, after watching a few of Brian Cox's lectures on entropy and the heat death of the universe, I had a rather interesting thought (although as I am not a...

Talking about the big bounce and black holes in another thread made me wonder about the life span of black holes, especially in the heat death scenario. If the U went through heat death, does that mean that black holes would also exhaust their energy? Do black holes die, and if so, what...

I'm assuming that the observer witnesses all other particles enter a horizon, be it an event horizon or the particle horizon. Thus the observer's observable universe would contain himself only. Is this understanding correct and can it happen in finite time? Also does such a universe have time...

I recently caught Brian Cox in BBC's Wonders of the Universe. I got caught on the heat death theory of the end of the universe. I understand the concept of entropy and that the universe is heading toward a state of maximum entropy. Cox used the example of desert sand to illustrate high...

Empirical evidence supports that the scale factor is proportional to the following. a(t) = e^(HT) Where the distance between any two objects are D(t) = a(t)Δx Where x does not measure physical distance, but a conventional coordinate distance. This means that eventually any physical distance...

How many will argue that heat death is a better end to our universe rather than a bounce into a new universe

I heard that eventually the universe will end in heat death where everything becomes cold and lifeless and immotile. Is this true and is it inescapable? What can we perhaps do about it?

I have read that some cosmological models predict a heat death of the universe. Eventually all matter (beggining with superclusters, clusters, then galaxies, then stars) will lose all energy and separate (due to expansion which will eventually occur even on a galactically local level) so that...

Is there a way that the hypothetical heat death of the universe can be prevented, if the danger exists? The heat death is a possible final state of the universe, in which it has "run down" to a state of no thermodynamic free energy to sustain motion or life. In other words, It has reached...

Assuming the eventual heat death of the universe, would there be a time when all matter becomes superconducting, or manifests as quantum condensates?

what is heat death of universe?

I have been reading the archives of Physics Forums, some threads about the expansion of the universe and also the upcoming Heat Death that people keep talking about. However, there are a few things that keep bugging me: First of all, atoms have not so far shown any tendency not to cluster...

I read about this once and then forgot where I read it, very simplified the theory goes like this: Intelligent beings create heat. Most items in a civilized culture create heat ie light bulbs, computers, etc. At some point a civilization will create more heat than can be dissipated and...

i have been thinking how our universe could continue if it suffers heat death, i can think of one possibility , that is that a bose einstein condensate could form, is that a possibility? if it is then interactions between BECs could rekindle our universe

Yo, d00ds, my Physics book mentions the concept of Heat Death (All the energy in the universe going to an unusable form) but says that it might not be valid if the universe is bounded in certain ways Does that just mean that if the universe hits a Big Crunch, it won't experience Heat Death...