Perpetual motion machine in Phys. Rev. Lett.

from the let's-get-a-2nd/3rd/4th-opinion-on-this-one dept.
Senior Associate ChrisPhoenix brings weird news: "I wouldn't have believed it, but it's reported in the American Institute of Physics Physics News Update number 494. A team in Europe has done some new thermodynamics work. They say that heat engines may be made more efficient than previously thought, by putting the hot and cold baths in direct contact for brief periods of time–this may even lead to new engine designs. Even more surprising is their second paper, which claims that a quantum particle strongly interacting (entangled) with a "quantum thermal bath" may violate the Clausius inequality. The particle may gain heat from a colder bath. They term this "appalling behavior", but come right out and say that this could constitute a perpetual motion machine of the second kind."