A Review of Recent Trends in Quantum Thermodynamics and a System’s Behavioural Analysis of the Universe Originating as a Quantum Energy System

Abstract

This paper combines a review of recent advances in quantum thermodynamics, including work on objective collapse (Zurek’s quantum Darwinism) and quantum gravity (Verlinde’s quantum gravity explanation), with a redefinition of entropy generation as systems’ change process . These concepts are used as systems’ behaviour analysis tools to allow us to revisit Hartle and Hawking’s 1983 quantum universe and develop a hypothesis for how physically a universe starting in a quantum state could evolve into our current universe, based on systems analysis. The outcome of this analysis raises a question: do we already have the elements of a “theory of everything” hiding in plain sight within recent advances in quantum thermodynamics?