Thermodynamic Variational Principle Unifying Gravity and Heat Flow

Author(s): Naoko Nakagawa and Shin-ichi Sasa Predicting the stable phase configuration in a liquid-gas system becomes a fundamental challenge when the stratification favored by gravity conflicts with arrangements induced by heat flow, particularly because standard equilibrium thermodynamics is insufficient in such nonequilibrium steady states.… [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 057101] Published Tue Feb 03, 2026