Direct construction of thermodynamic laws from quantum mechanics

A non-equilibrium isolated macroscopic system spontaneously changes into an equilibrium one. The origin of such a well-known thermodynamic phenomenon has been left unclear since the 19th century. This paper shows that irreversible thermodynamic laws can be directly deduced from quantum mechanics if we investigate an isolated system from a new standpoint of looking at it from the inside. This result implies the achievement of a long-awaited target of directly constructing thermodynamic laws from quantum mechanics and leads to the completion of thermodynamics. The result also opens up a new view that diverse macroscopic irreversible phenomena including self-organization and evolution in living organisms can be regarded as macroscopic quantum phenomena and discloses a possibility of producing artificial life and intelligence with a non-mechanical character, for example, those with free will and creativity, through thorough pursuit of an ingenious combination of irreversible processes based on quantum mechanics. (author)