Thermal Inductors- Heat Flowing from Cold to Hot Without External Energy Input?

[moltenmetal]

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/4/eaat9953

Discuss...

How can you generate, with no energy input, an unnatural temperature difference? Given that a temperature difference, however it has been established, can be used to power a conventional heat engine, how does this NOT violate the 1st law?

 

[IRstuff]

TLDR, but it looks like a transitory phenomenon, not unlike an underdamped electrical inductor circuit. The long-term result still obeys all known laws.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[MJCronin]

Hooray !!! .... We have finally invented a Perpetual Motion Machine !!!

There is a Nobel Prize here for someone !!!

MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer

 

[SwinnyGG]

Did you read the paper?

There is no external work applied, but the process is not 100% efficient, and the sign of heat flux oscillates based on the properties of the inductive circuit.

The behavior is, exactly as IRStuff points out, exactly like that of an underdamped circuit with heat flux as a proxy for current.