Professor José-María Martín-Olalla of the University of Seville has published a paper in Physica Scripta that may become a turning point in fundamental physics. He argues that the vanishing of heat capacity at absolute zero — a phenomenon treated for nearly 120 years as an independent third law of thermodynamics — actually follows directly from the second law, namely from the principle of increasing entropy and the requirement of equilibrium stability.

What Has Changed

It has long been known that heat capacity falls to zero as a system approaches absolute zero. Einstein attributed this to quantum effects, and since then it has been treated as a separate postulate (the Nernst theorem, the third law). Martín-Olalla has shown that no separate postulate is needed. The stability condition for thermodynamic equilibrium — a direct consequence of the second law — inherently requires heat capacity to vanish faster than temperature as T → 0. Otherwise, the system would become unstable, a physically impossible situation.

In the summer of 2025, he had already shown that the Nernst theorem itself can be derived from the second law. Together, the two papers point to a radical conclusion: the first two laws of thermodynamics (energy conservation and entropy increase) are sufficient to explain the behavior of matter at all temperatures, including absolute zero. The third law ceases to be an independent axiom.

Why It Matters

If the findings are confirmed — and the mathematical rigor behind them leaves little room for doubt — this could:

• simplify fundamental thermodynamics, eliminating the need for a separate third-law postulate;
• force a revision of physics and physical-chemistry textbooks;
• offer new insight into the behavior of matter under extreme conditions, from superconductivity to cosmology.

Einstein’s quantum explanation remains valid at the microscopic level, but the macroscopic behavior turns out to be universal and independent of quantum specifics.

In Short

Spanish physicist José-María Martín-Olalla has demonstrated that both the vanishing of heat capacity at absolute zero and the Nernst theorem are not independent laws but direct consequences of the second law of thermodynamics. The third law is no longer an autonomous postulate. If the scientific community accepts these conclusions, this will mark one of the most significant revisions of thermodynamic foundations in the past century.