Does inflation violate the second law of thermodynamics? It seems like it would, since quantum fluctuations were scaled up and created the varying density field that lead to Galaxy formation. Furthermore, how does Hawking radiation not violate the law, since black holes are at max entropy and Hawking radiation is spontaneous?
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asked Mar 2, 2016 at 17:50
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$\begingroup$ The second law of thermodynamics is the definition of temperature. Why do you think that definition was violated? Did heat flow from cold to warm spontaneously during inflation? $\endgroup$– CuriousOneCommented Mar 2, 2016 at 19:36
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$\begingroup$ Pick a question and ask it. If you have two questions, make two separate questions in two separate posts. $\endgroup$– TimaeusCommented Mar 3, 2016 at 6:48
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$\begingroup$ Hawking Radiation leads to the slow evaporation of black holes. $\endgroup$– Arif BurhanCommented Mar 22, 2016 at 3:38
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Inflation does seem to violate the Second Law because it takes the irregular and bumpy primordial universe and scales it into a homogenous landscape. This homogenous landscape has low entropy in the everyday sense of the word (disordered), but has extremely high gravitational entropy. This is a problem because gravitational entropy accounts for the vast majority of the entropy of the universe (think black holes). However, the theory does solve, with remarkable accuracy, more important issues.
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$\begingroup$ This is a problem because gravitational entropy accounts for the vast majority of the entropy of the universe (think black holes). I don't think this is correct. A maximum-entropy universe would have lots of energy tied up in gravitational degrees of freedom, such as black holes and gravitational waves. But we don't live in a maximum-entropy universe. $\endgroup$– user4552Commented May 15, 2019 at 20:16
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$\begingroup$ Even so, there are sufficient numbers of black holes that the entropy stored in them greatly outweighs that in the disorder of matter. Inflation goes against this and in doing so appears to violate the Second Law. $\endgroup$– PhysicsCommented May 16, 2019 at 11:08