Abstract
The ubiquity of double helical and logarithmic spirals in nature is well observed, but no explanation is ever offered for their prevalence. DNA and the Milky Way galaxy are examples of such structures, whose geometric entropy we study using an information-theoretic (Shannon entropy) complex-vector analysis to calculate, respectively, the Gibbs free energy difference between B-DNA and P-DNA, and the galactic virial mass. Both of these analytic calculations (without any free parameters) are consistent with observation to within the experimental uncertainties. We define conjugate hyperbolic space and entropic momentum co-ordinates to describe these spiral structures in Minkowski space-time, enabling a consistent and holographic Hamiltonian-Lagrangian system that is completely isomorphic and complementary to that of conventional kinematics. Such double spirals therefore obey a maximum-entropy path-integral variational calculus (“the principle of least exertion”, entirely comparable to the principle of least action), thereby making them the most likely geometry (also with maximal structural stability) to be adopted by any such system in space-time. These simple analytical calculations are quantitative examples of the application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as expressed in geometric entropy terms. They are underpinned by a comprehensive entropic action (“exertion”) principle based upon Boltzmann’s constant as the quantum of exertion.