Related papers: Microscopic statistical basis of classical Thermod…
Equilibrium statistics of finite Hamiltonian systems is fundamentally described by the microcanonical ensemble (ME). Canonical, or grand-canonical partition functions are deduced from this by Laplace transform. Only in the thermodynamic…
Thermodynamics allows the application of Statistical Mechanics to finite and even small systems. As surface effects cannot be scaled away, one has to be careful with the standard arguments of splitting a system into two or bringing two…
Conventional thermo-statistics address infinite homogeneous systems within the canonical ensemble. (Only in this case this is equivalent to the fundamental microcanonical ensemble.) However, some 170 years ago the original motivation of…
In a first part the scope of classical thermodynamics and statistical mechanics is discussed in the broader context of formal dynamical systems, including computer programmes. In this context classical thermodynamics appears as a particular…
The most complicated phenomena of equilibrium statistics, phase separations and transitions of various order and critical phenomena, can clearly and sharply be seen even for small systems in the topology of the curvature of the…
Conventional thermo-statistics address infinite homogeneous systems within the canonical ensemble. However, some 170 years ago the original motivation of thermodynamics was the description of steam engines, i.e. boiling water. Its essential…
Microcanonical thermodynamics allows the application of statistical mechanics both to finite and even small systems and also to the largest, self-gravitating ones. However, one must reconsider the fundamental principles of statistical…
Microcanonical Thermodynamics allows the application of Statistical Mechanics on one hand to closed finite and even small systems and on the other to the largest,self-gravitating ones. However, one has to reconsider the fundamental…
Conventional thermo-statistics address infinite homogeneous systems within the canonical ensemble. However, some 150 years ago the original motivation of thermodynamics was the description of steam engines, i.e. boiling water. Its essential…
The existence of fluctuations of temperature has been a somewhat controversial topic in thermodynamics but nowadays it is recognized that they must be taken into account in small, finite systems. Although for nonequilibrium steady states…
In traditional thermodynamical and statistical-mechanical approaches one has (some) detailed knowledge of the principles governing the microdynamics of a system. However in many instances we may not have a Hamiltonian or good information…
Present-day thermodynamics has long outgrown the initial frames of the heat-engine theory and transmuted into a rather general macroscopic method for studying kinetics of various transfer processes in their inseparable connection with the…
The relationship between thermodynamics and statistical physics is valid in the thermodynamic limit - when the number of particles becomes very large. Here, we study thermodynamics in the opposite regime - at both the nano scale, and when…
The basic idea of a microscopic understanding of Thermodynamics is to derive its main features from a microscopic probability distribution. In such a vein, we investigate the thermal statistics of quasi-probabilities's semi-classical…
Equilibrium statistical mechanics is intended to link the microscopic dynamics of particles to the thermodynamic laws for macroscopic quantities. However, the modern statistical theory is faced with significant difficulties, as applied to…
The use of statistical methods to model gravitational systems is crucial to physics practice, but the extent to which thermodynamics and statistical mechanics genuinely apply to these systems is a contentious issue. This paper provides new…
We show how statistical thermodynamics can be formulated in situations in which thermodynamics applies, while equilibrium statistical mechanics does not. A typical case is, in the words of Landau and Lifshitz, that of partial (or…
Lack of knowledge about the detailed many-particle motion on the microscopic scale is a key issue in any theoretical description of a macroscopic experiment. For systems at or close to thermal equilibrium, statistical mechanics provides a…
Phase transitions in nuclei, small atomic clusters and self-gravitating systems demand the extension of thermo-statistics to ``Small'' systems. The main obstacle is the thermodynamic limit. It is shown how the original definition of the…
Statistical thermodynamics has a universal appeal that extends beyond molecular systems, and yet, as its tools are being transplanted to fields outside physics, the fundamental question, \textit{what is thermodynamics?}, has remained…