Investigation demonstrates boundary microprocesses induce non-isothermal equilibrium-like states, suggesting new thermodynamic insights.
{ We investigate how boundary microprocesses can select stationary states that are equilibrium-like yet non-isothermal. Motivated by the Izumi effect, we formulate boundary exchange in terms of a collision-conditioned transition kernel and introduce a flux-weighted effective number of accessible states, Weff(Eₓ,x), with an associated effective entropy Seff=kBln Weff. In a minimal 1D normal-channel model, the collision weight C(Eₓ)∝ |vₓ|∝ Eₓ1/2 cancels the 1D density-of-states factor g1 D(Eₓ)∝ Eₓ-1/2, so that the boundary-conditioned exchange spectrum becomes shape-controlled by the wall bosonic occupation with an adsorption shift, fBE(Eₓ+Vw). Starting from a two-wall operator, we derive particle- and energy-flux functionals and show that, when adsorption shifts differ (VA≠ VB), the stationarity constraints for particle flux and energy flux generically do not coincide with the standard grand-canonical fixed point. This mismatch produces robust structural non-isothermal stationarity selected by the boundary kernel class rather than by bulk gradients. We further construct a work-extraction and regeneration cycle based on kernel-class switching (e.g.\ gas exchange) and provide explicit first-law bookkeeping. Finally, we identify which textbook assumptions are bypassed (global ergodicity, equal a priori probability on the full energy shell, and the premises behind H-theorems) while retaining Liouvillean bulk dynamics and microreversibility, and we propose a minimal thermodynamic reinterpretation in which the Zeroth and Second Laws are boundary-conditioned fixed-point statements. }
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Makoto Izumi (2026) studied this question.
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