Thermalization in open classical systems with finite heat baths
Statistical Mechanics
2009-11-13 v1 Materials Science
Abstract
We discuss thermalization of a test particle schematized as a harmonic oscillator and coupled to a Boltzmann heat bath of finite size and with a finite bandwidth for the frequencies of its particles. We find that complete thermalization only occurs when the test particle frequency is within a certain range of the bath particle frequencies, and for a certain range of mass ratios between the test particle and the bath particles. These results have implications for the study of classical and quantum behaviour of high-frequency nanomechanical resonators.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0810.3251,
title = {Thermalization in open classical systems with finite heat baths},
author = {S. Taylor Smith and Roberto Onofrio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.3251},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 pages, 4 figures