Related papers: From Boltzmann-Gibbs ensemble to generalized ensem…
What is the best description that we can construct of a thermodynamic system that is not in equilibrium, given only one, or a few, extra parameters over and above those needed for a description of the same system at equilibrium? Here, we…
This paper is a companion article to our previous paper (J. Stat. Phys. 119, 1283 (2005), cond-mat/0408681), which introduced a generalized canonical ensemble obtained by multiplying the usual Boltzmann weight factor $e^{-\beta H}$ of the…
We generalize the usual exponential Boltzmann factor to any reasonable and potentially observable distribution function, $B(E)$. By defining generalized logarithms $\Lambda$ as inverses of these distribution functions, we are led to a…
The framework of non-extensive statistical mechanics, proposed by Tsallis, has been used to describe a variety of systems. The non-extensive statistical mechanics is usually introduced in a formal way, using the maximization of entropy. In…
Boltzmann's principle is used to select the "most probable" realization (macrostate) of an isolated or closed thermodynamic system, containing a small number of particles ($N \llsp \infty$), for both classical and quantum statistics. The…
For studying the thermodynamic properties of systems using statistical mechanics we propose an ensemble that lies in between the familiar canonical and microcanonical ensembles. From a comparative study of these ensembles we conclude that…
We present a thermodynamic theory for a generic population of $M$ individuals distributed into $N$ groups (clusters). We construct the ensemble of all distributions with fixed $M$ and $N$, introduce a selection functional that embodies the…
We study a particle immersed in a heat bath, in the presence of an external force which decays at least as rapidly as $1/x$, for example a particle interacting with a surface through a Lennard-Jones or a logarithmic potential. As time…
Thermodynamics makes definite predictions about the thermal behavior of macroscopic systems in and out of equilibrium. Statistical mechanics aims to derive this behavior from the dynamics and statistics of the atoms and molecules making up…
We show that within classical statistical mechanics without taking the thermodynamic limit, the most general Boltzmann factor for the canonical ensemble is a q-exponential function. The only assumption here is that microcanonical…
A pedagogical approach for deriving the statistical mechanical partition function, in a manner that emphasizes the key role of entropy in connecting the microscopic states to thermodynamics, is introduced. The connections between the…
Tsallis has proposed a generalisation of the standard entropy, which has since been applied to a variety of physical systems. In the canonical ensemble approach that is mostly used, average energy is given by an unnromalised, or normalised,…
We investigate the overdamped stochastic dynamics of a particle in an asymptotically flat external potential field, in contact with a thermal bath. For an infinite system size, the particles may escape the force field and diffuse freely at…
Counting ad infinitum is the holographic observable to a statistical dynamics with finite states under independent repeated sampling. Entropy provides the infinitesimal probability for an observed frequency $\hat{\boldsymbol{\nu}}$ w.r.t. a…
Shannon and Khinchin showed that assuming four information theoretic axioms the entropy must be of Boltzmann-Gibbs type, $S=-\sum_i p_i \log p_i$. Here we note that in physical systems one of these axioms may be violated. For non-ergodic…
The canonical ensemble describes an open system in equilibrium with a heat bath of fixed temperature. The probability distribution of such a system, the Boltzmann distribution, is derived from the uniform probability distribution of the…
The issue of the thermodynamics of a system of distinguishable particles is discussed in this paper. In constructing the statistical mechanics of distinguishable particles from the definition of Boltzmann entropy, it is found that the…
Equilibrium statistics of Hamiltonian systems is correctly described by the microcanonical ensemble. Classically this is the manifold of all points in the $N-$body phase space with the given total energy. Due to Boltzmann's principle,…
A comprehensive investigation is carried out on the class of energy based ensembles. The eight ensembles are divided into two main classes. In the isothermal class of ensembles the individual members are at the same temperature. A unified…
The connection between the non-equilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems and statistical mechanics is a fundamental open question. It is generally believed that the unitary quantum evolution of a sufficiently complex system…