Presentation of a New Formulation of Negentropy : 1st Report, Basic Concepts

Abstract

The previous definition of negentropy by attaching the minus sign to entropy is not sufficient for the purpose of understanding such terms as information, order, non-equilibrium, and work in a unified manner. This paper proposes a new definition, a modification of the former one, which introduces a quantity which represents more adequately the above terms. This quantity, named negentropy in the system, is a function of the system. It is important to make it possible to describe the behavior of negentropy when two or more systems are involved, and mutual negentropy among systems, which is also derived from the new definition, is introduced in order to deal with such cases. Negentropy has a wide range of applicabilities in possibility. But since the close relation between negentropy and work is shown by giving the new definition, the application to the problem about the work is mainly discussed here.