Quanta and entropy generation

•Irreversibility is the fundamental characteristic of real systems.•Quanta exchange is the fundamental of any physical interaction.•The thermodynamic processes are interpreted as quanta exchange.

Is there a link between the macroscopic description of the irreversibility and microscopic behaviour of the systems? Transfer of the exergy, i.e., consumption of free energy will keep the system away from a stable equilibrium. So entropy generation results from the redistribution of energy, momentum, mass and charge. Moreover, irreversible consumption of free energy was underlined to create time’s arrow. This concept represents the essence of the thermodynamic approach to irreversibility. The analysis developed in this paper points out that the principle of maximum of entropy generation and the least action can be recognized as the only single law. Quanta are exchanged between a system and its surroundings. Each quantum carries energy. The natural behaviour of the open systems is ascribed to the decrease of free energy in the least time, which can be related to the extremum entropy generation theorem. Irreversibility is the result of the interaction between systems and their environment with the consequence time symmetry breaking. The fundamental result of this paper is to introduce a link between the global analysis of irreversibility and Noether’s results.