B Is it possible to apply thermodynamics to magnetic/weak/nuclear fields

[Ignorantsmith12]

TL;DR Summary

It's pretty much as the thread's title says, except that I also wanted to know how thermodynamics might affect the forces from those fields. Also, when I mean nuclear field, I am not just referring to the force holding protons to neutrons, but also the force holding quarks together within protons and neutrons, but I could only type so much in the title.

When I was taught about temperature in high school, I was told that substances that are hot have molecules that move fast, while substances that are cold have molecules that move slowly. I was also told that everything moves towards greater disorder or entropy. This is apparently because there are many more disordered states than ordered states. I don't know how dumbed down this explanation is, but it did make a powerful impression on me. So powerful, in fact, that I wonder if it's possible to take thermodynamics and somehow apply it to fields that give rise to three out of four fundamental forces (I know better than to get into gravity).

Now, I have trouble imagining that someone could say a magnetic field is cold or hot or that it moves toward entropy, but is there a way to modify thermodynamics so it can apply to fields?

 

[renormalize]

I wonder if it's possible to take thermodynamics and somehow apply it to fields that give rise to three out of four fundamental forces.

Yes, there is a facet of quantum physics that applies to "hot" force fields: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_quantum_field_theory. One example is discussed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QCD_matter, which says:
"...when the temperature reaches the QCD energy scale (T of order $10^{12}$ kelvins) or the density rises to the point where the average inter-quark separation is less than 1 fm (quark chemical potential μ around 400 MeV), the hadrons are melted into their constituent quarks, and the strong interaction becomes the dominant feature of the physics. Such phases are called quark matter or QCD matter."

 

[PeterDonis]

I don't know how dumbed down this explanation is

Very much so.