This is extremely strange. Shouldn't this be impossible by the second law of thermodynamics?
Receiving more energy when a resistor in thermal equilibrium is connected to an antenna seemingly implies that energy gets transferred from an antenna with a resistor to a an antenna without a resistor, even at thermal equilibrium.
Maybe we'll later find it's an experimental subtlety, like the faster than light neutrinos.
FWIW, the "Significance" blurb at the very top says as much:
> An interesting feature of the system is that all components of the system are at the same physical temperature, but it functions because they have different noise temperatures.
mitxela · · focus · HN ↗
Receiving more energy when a resistor in thermal equilibrium is connected to an antenna seemingly implies that energy gets transferred from an antenna with a resistor to a an antenna without a resistor, even at thermal equilibrium.
Maybe we'll later find it's an experimental subtlety, like the faster than light neutrinos.
dist-epoch · · focus · HN ↗
Basically they are misleading when they say "thermal equilibrium", same physical temperature does not imply thermal equilibrium.
TeMPOraL · · focus · HN ↗
> An interesting feature of the system is that all components of the system are at the same physical temperature, but it functions because they have different noise temperatures.
(I assume it's not AI-generated.)