1,478 research outputs found
The evolution of radiation towards thermal equilibrium: A soluble model which illustrates the foundations of Statistical Mechanics
In 1916 Einstein introduced the first rules for a quantum theory of
electromagnetic radiation, and he applied them to a model of matter in thermal
equilibrium with radiation to derive Planck's black-body formula. Einstein's
treatment is extended here to time-dependent stochastic variables, which leads
to a master equation for the probability distribution that describes the
irreversible approach of Einstein's model towards thermal equilibrium, and
elucidates aspects of the foundation of statistical mechanics. An analytic
solution of this equation is obtained in the Fokker-Planck approximation which
is in excellent agreement with numerical results. At equilibrium, it is shown
that the probability distribution is proportional to the total number of
microstates for a given configuration, in accordance with Boltzmann's
fundamental postulate of equal a priori probabilities for these states. While
the counting of these configurations depends on particle statistics- Boltzmann,
Bose-Einstein, or Fermi-Dirac - the corresponding probability is determined
here by the dynamics which are embodied in the form of Einstein's quantum
transition probabilities for the emission and absorption of radiation. In a
special limit, it is shown that the photons in Einstein's model can act as a
thermal bath for the evolution of the atoms towards the canonical equilibrium
distribution of Gibbs. In this limit, the present model is mathematically
equivalent to an extended version of the Ehrenfests' ``dog-flea'' model, which
has been discussed recently by Ambegaokar and Clerk
Entropy and Time
The emergence of a direction of time in statistical mechanics from an
underlying time-reversal-invariant dynamics is explained by examining a simple
model. The manner in which time-reversal symmetry is preserved and the role of
initial conditions are emphasized. An extension of the model to finite
temperatures is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 8eps figures. To appear in the theme issue of the American
Journal of Physics on Statistical Physic
Thermodynamics and time-average
For a dynamical system far from equilibrium, one has to deal with empirical
probabilities defined through time-averages, and the main problem is then how
to formulate an appropriate statistical thermodynamics. The common answer is
that the standard functional expression of Boltzmann-Gibbs for the entropy
should be used, the empirical probabilities being substituted for the Gibbs
measure. Other functional expressions have been suggested, but apparently with
no clear mechanical foundation. Here it is shown how a natural extension of the
original procedure employed by Gibbs and Khinchin in defining entropy, with the
only proviso of using the empirical probabilities, leads for the entropy to a
functional expression which is in general different from that of
Boltzmann--Gibbs. In particular, the Gibbs entropy is recovered for empirical
probabilities of Poisson type, while the Tsallis entropies are recovered for a
deformation of the Poisson distribution.Comment: 8 pages, LaTex source. Corrected some misprint
The Ehrenfest urn revisited: Playing the game on a realistic fluid model
The Ehrenfest urn process, also known as the dogs and fleas model, is
realistically simulated by molecular dynamics of the Lennard-Jones fluid. The
key variable is Delta z, i.e. the absolute value of the difference between the
number of particles in one half of the simulation box and in the other half.
This is a pure-jump stochastic process induced, under coarse graining, by the
deterministic time evolution of the atomic coordinates. We discuss the Markov
hypothesis by analyzing the statistical properties of the jumps and of the
waiting times between jumps. In the limit of a vanishing integration time-step,
the distribution of waiting times becomes closer to an exponential and,
therefore, the continuous-time jump stochastic process is Markovian. The random
variable Delta z behaves as a Markov chain and, in the gas phase, the observed
transition probabilities follow the predictions of the Ehrenfest theory.Comment: Accepted by Physical Review E on 4 May 200
Stabilisation of the lattice-Boltzmann method using the Ehrenfests' coarse-graining
The lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) and its variants have emerged as
promising, computationally efficient and increasingly popular numerical methods
for modelling complex fluid flow. However, it is acknowledged that the method
can demonstrate numerical instabilities, e.g., in the vicinity of shocks. We
propose a simple and novel technique to stabilise the lattice-Boltzmann method
by monitoring the difference between microscopic and macroscopic entropy.
Populations are returned to their equilibrium states if a threshold value is
exceeded. We coin the name Ehrenfests' steps for this procedure in homage to
the vehicle that we use to introduce the procedure, namely, the Ehrenfests'
idea of coarse-graining. The one-dimensional shock tube for a compressible
isothermal fluid is a standard benchmark test for hydrodynamic codes. We
observe that, of all the LBMs considered in the numerical experiment with the
one-dimensional shock tube, only the method which includes Ehrenfests' steps is
capable of suppressing spurious post-shock oscillations.Comment: 4 pages, 9 figure
Coherent states and the classical-quantum limit considered from the point of view of entanglement
Three paradigms commonly used in classical, pre-quantum physics to describe
particles (that is: the material point, the test-particle and the diluted
particle (droplet model)) can be identified as limit-cases of a quantum regime
in which pairs of particles interact without getting entangled with each other.
This entanglement-free regime also provides a simplified model of what is
called in the decoherence approach "islands of classicality", that is,
preferred bases that would be selected through evolution by a Darwinist
mechanism that aims at optimising information. We show how, under very general
conditions, coherent states are natural candidates for classical pointer
states. This occurs essentially because, when a (supposedly bosonic) system
coherently exchanges only one quantum at a time with the (supposedly bosonic)
environment, coherent states of the system do not get entangled with the
environment, due to the bosonic symmetry.Comment: This is the definitive version of a paper entitled The
classical-quantum limit considered from the point of view of entanglement: a
survey (author T. Durt). The older version has been replaced by the
definitive on
Weak quantization
Quantization is called weak when a motion apparently allowed by the equation ∫pdq=nh, has less than the normal a-priori weight. It is believed that the deficiency in a-priori weight is taken over, either by neighboring classically allowed motions, or by neighboring strongly quantized motions when such are present in the region of the phase-space considered. Weak quantization is to be expected when uncertainties arise as to the period that should be used in determining the limits of the phase integral ∫pdq. Several cases are considered; (a) when the period is so long that there is considerable chance of interruption by a quantum transition; (b) when a system has two apparent periods, a long true period T and a short quasi-period θ; (c) when the periodicity is disturbed frequently in a fortuitous manner as by molecular collisions. In case (b), the tendency towards quantization with respect to T may be gradually replaced by quantization with respect to θ as T is lengthened, and then the probability of quantum transitions which correspond to quantization with respect to T is weakened while that of transitions related to θ is strengthened. This suggests the possibility that the strengthening of the probability of transitions related to a period θ may be accompanied by a strengthening of quantization with respect to that period
Drifting diffusion on a circle as continuous limit of a multiurn Ehrenfest model
We study the continuous limit of a multibox Erhenfest urn model proposed
before by the authors. The evolution of the resulting continuous system is
governed by a differential equation, which describes a diffusion process on a
circle with a nonzero drifting velocity. The short time behavior of this
diffusion process is obtained directly by solving the equation, while the long
time behavior is derived using the Poisson summation formula. They reproduce
the previous results in the large (number of boxes) limit. We also discuss
the connection between this diffusion equation and the Schrdinger
equation of some quantum mechanical problems.Comment: 4 pages prevtex4 file, 1 eps figur
Temperature equilibrium in a static gravitational field
In the case of a gravitating mass of perfect fluid which has come to thermodynamic equilibrium, it has previously been shown that the proper temperature T0 as measured by a local observer would depend in a definite manner on the gravitational potential at the point where the measurement is made. In the present article the conditions of thermal equilibrium are investigated in the case of a general static gravitational field which could correspond to a system containing solid as well as fluid parts. Writing the line element for the general static field in the form ds2=gijdxidxj+g44dt2 i,j=1,2,3,
where the gij and g44 are independent of the time t it is shown that the dependence of proper temperature on position at thermal equilibrium is such as to make the quantity T0sqrt[g44] a constant throughout the system
The Beginning of the End of the Anthropic Principle
We argue that if string theory as an approach to the fundamental laws of
physics is correct, then there is almost no room for anthropic arguments in
cosmology. The quark and lepton masses and interaction strengths are
determined.Comment: 12 page
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