Related papers: Phase Transitions in "Small" Systems - A Challenge…
We compare phase transition(-like) phenomena in small model systems for both microcanonical and canonical ensembles. The model systems correspond to a few classical (non-quantum) point particles confined in a one-dimensional box and…
We show that the presence and the location of first order phase transitions in a thermodynamic system can be deduced by the study of the topology of the potential energy function, V(q), without introducing any thermodynamic measure. In…
Boltzmann's principle S=k ln W allows to extend equilibrium thermo-statistics to ``Small'' systems without invoking the thermodynamic limit. The clue is to base statistical probability on ensemble averaging and not on time averaging. It is…
It is argued that a typical many body energy eigenstate has a well defined thermodynamic entropy and that individual eigenstates possess thermodynamic characteristics analogous to those of generic isolated systems. We examine large systems…
In this work we study the evolution of Boltzmann's entropy in the context of free expansion of a one dimensional interacting gas inside a box. Boltzmann's entropy is defined for single microstates and is given by the phase-space volume…
We derive a systematic approach to the thermodynamics of quantum systems based on the underlying symmetry groups. We show that the entropy of a system can be described in terms of group-theoretical quantities that are largely independent of…
In this contribution we show that a suitably defined nonequilibrium entropy of an N-body isolated system is not a constant of the motion in general and its variation is bounded, the bounds determined by the thermodynamic entropy, i.e., the…
States of thermal equilibrium of an infinite system of interacting particles in a Euclidean space are studied. The particles bear 'unbounded' spins with a given symmetric a priori distribution. The interaction between the particles is…
A unified view on macroscopic thermodynamics and quantum transport is presented. Thermodynamic processes with an exchange of energy between two systems necessarily involve the flow of other balanceable quantities. These flows are first…
The nature of statistics, statistical mechanics and consequently the thermodynamics of stochastic systems is largely determined by how the number of states $W(N)$ depends on the size $N$ of the system. Here we propose a scaling expansion of…
We investigate the relationship between ground-state (zero-temperature) quantum phase transitions in systems with variable Hamiltonian parameters and classical (temperature-driven) phase transitions in standard thermodynamics. An analogy is…
The physical meaning of entropy is analyzed in the context of statistical, nuclear, atomic physics and cosmology. Only the microcanonical Boltzmann entropy leads to no contradictions in several simple, elementary and for thermodynamics…
Let (M,J) be a dynamical model of macroscopic systems and (N,K) a less microscopic model (i.e. a model involving less details) of the same macroscopic systems; M and N are manifolds, J are vector fields on M, and K are vector fields on N.…
Small systems consisting of a few particles are increasingly technologically relevant. In such systems, an intense debate in microcanonical statistical mechanics has been about the correctness of Boltzmann's surface entropy versus Gibbs'…
We present a classification scheme for phase transitions in finite systems like atomic and molecular clusters based on the Lee-Yang zeros in the complex temperature plane. In the limit of infinite particle numbers the scheme reduces to the…
Stochastic thermodynamics provides a framework for describing small systems like colloids or biomolecules driven out of equilibrium but still in contact with a heat bath. Both, a first-law like energy balance involving exchanged heat and…
In this paper we analyze a PDE system modelling (non-isothermal) phase transitions and damage phenomena in thermoviscoelastic materials. The model is thermodynamically consistent: in particular, no {\em small perturbation assumption} is…
We apply variational principles in the context of geometrothermodynamics. The thermodynamic phase space ${\cal T}$ and the space of equilibrium states ${\cal E}$ turn out to be described by Riemannian metrics which are invariant with…
The mean-field thermodynamic limit is studied for a class of isolated Newtonian N-body systems whose Hamiltonian admits several invariants of motion. It is shown that the macrostates of individual members of a statistical equilibrium…
The paper examines and critiques the expression of entropy as the logarithm of the number of quantum states of a physical system. Boltzmann method of expressing entropy as the logarithm of the number of states of a gas with a given total…