Tropical limit and a micro-macro correspondence in statistical physics

Science.gov (United States)

Angelelli, Mario

2017-10-01

Tropical mathematics is used to establish a correspondence between certain microscopic and macroscopic objects in statistical models. Tropical algebra gives a common framework for macrosystems (subsets) and their elementary constituents (elements) that is well-behaved with respect to composition. This kind of connection is studied with maps that preserve a monoid structure. The approach highlights an underlying order relation that is explored through the concepts of filter and ideal. Particular attention is paid to asymmetry and duality between max- and min-criteria. Physical implementations are presented through simple examples in thermodynamics and non-equilibrium physics. The phenomenon of ultrametricity, the notion of tropical equilibrium and the role of ground energy in non-equilibrium models are discussed. Tropical symmetry, i.e. idempotence, is investigated.

Planar-channeling spatial density under statistical equilibrium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ellison, J.A.; Picraux, S.T.

1978-01-01

The phase-space density for planar channeled particles has been derived for the continuum model under statistical equilibrium. This is used to obtain the particle spatial probability density as a function of incident angle. The spatial density is shown to depend on only two parameters, a normalized incident angle and a normalized planar spacing. This normalization is used to obtain, by numerical calculation, a set of universal curves for the spatial density and also for the channeled-particle wavelength as a function of amplitude. Using these universal curves, the statistical-equilibrium spatial density and the channeled-particle wavelength can be easily obtained for any case for which the continuum model can be applied. Also, a new one-parameter analytic approximation to the spatial density is developed. This parabolic approximation is shown to give excellent agreement with the exact calculations

Statistical approach to partial equilibrium analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yougui; Stanley, H. E.

2009-04-01

A statistical approach to market equilibrium and efficiency analysis is proposed in this paper. One factor that governs the exchange decisions of traders in a market, named willingness price, is highlighted and constitutes the whole theory. The supply and demand functions are formulated as the distributions of corresponding willing exchange over the willingness price. The laws of supply and demand can be derived directly from these distributions. The characteristics of excess demand function are analyzed and the necessary conditions for the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium point of the market are specified. The rationing rates of buyers and sellers are introduced to describe the ratio of realized exchange to willing exchange, and their dependence on the market price is studied in the cases of shortage and surplus. The realized market surplus, which is the criterion of market efficiency, can be written as a function of the distributions of willing exchange and the rationing rates. With this approach we can strictly prove that a market is efficient in the state of equilibrium.

Brownian quasi-particles in statistical physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tellez-Arenas, A.; Fronteau, J.; Combis, P.

1979-01-01

The idea of a Brownian quasi-particle and the associated differentiable flow (with nonselfadjoint forces) are used here in the context of a stochastic description of the approach towards statistical equilibrium. We show that this quasi-particle flow acquires, at equilibrium, the principal properties of a conservative Hamiltonian flow. Thus the model of Brownian quasi-particles permits us to establish a link between the stochastic description and the Gibbs description of statistical equilibrium

Stability and equilibrium in quantum statistical mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kastler, Daniel.

1975-01-01

A derivation of the Gibbs Ansatz, base of the equilibrium statistical mechanics is provided from a stability requirements, in technical connection with the harmonic analysis of non-commutative dynamical systems. By the same token a relation is established between stability and the positivity of Hamiltonian in the zero temperature case [fr

The Non-Equilibrium Statistical Distribution Function for Electrons and Holes in Semiconductor Heterostructures in Steady-State Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krzysztof Jόzwikowska

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The main goal of this work is to determine a statistical non-equilibrium distribution function for the electron and holes in semiconductor heterostructures in steady-state conditions. Based on the postulates of local equilibrium, as well as on the integral form of the weighted Gyarmati’s variational principle in the force representation, using an alternative method, we have derived general expressions, which have the form of the Fermi–Dirac distribution function with four additional components. The physical interpretation of these components has been carried out in this paper. Some numerical results of a non-equilibrium distribution function for an electron in HgCdTe structures are also presented.

Nonequilibrium statistical physics a modern perspective

CERN Document Server

Livi, Roberto

2017-01-01

Statistical mechanics has been proven to be successful at describing physical systems at thermodynamic equilibrium. Since most natural phenomena occur in nonequilibrium conditions, the present challenge is to find suitable physical approaches for such conditions: this book provides a pedagogical pathway that explores various perspectives. The use of clear language, and explanatory figures and diagrams to describe models, simulations and experimental findings makes the book a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate students, and also for lecturers organizing teaching at varying levels of experience in the field. Written in three parts, it covers basic and traditional concepts of nonequilibrium physics, modern aspects concerning nonequilibrium phase transitions, and application-orientated topics from a modern perspective. A broad range of topics is covered, including Langevin equations, Levy processes, directed percolation, kinetic roughening and pattern formation.

Non-equilibrium phenomena in confined soft matter irreversible adsorption, physical aging and glass transition at the nanoscale

CERN Document Server

2015-01-01

This book presents cutting-edge experimental and computational results and provides comprehensive coverage on the impact of non-equilibrium structure and dynamics on the properties of soft matter confined to the nanoscale. The book is organized into three main sections: ·         Equilibration and physical aging: by treating non-equilibrium phenomena with the formal methodology of statistical physics in bulk, the analysis of the kinetics of equilibration sheds new light on the physical origin of the non-equilibrium character of thin polymer films. Both the impact of sample preparation and that of interfacial interactions are analyzed using a large set of experiments. A historical overview of the investigation of the non-equilibrium character of thin polymer films is also presented. Furthermore, the discussion focuses on how interfaces and geometrical confinement perturb the pathways and kinetics of equilibrations of soft glasses (a process of tremendous technological interest). ·         Irr...

Statistical physics of human beings in games: Controlled experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang Yuan; Huang Ji-Ping

2014-01-01

It is important to know whether the laws or phenomena in statistical physics for natural systems with non-adaptive agents still hold for social human systems with adaptive agents, because this implies whether it is possible to study or understand social human systems by using statistical physics originating from natural systems. For this purpose, we review the role of human adaptability in four kinds of specific human behaviors, namely, normal behavior, herd behavior, contrarian behavior, and hedge behavior. The approach is based on controlled experiments in the framework of market-directed resource-allocation games. The role of the controlled experiments could be at least two-fold: adopting the real human decision-making process so that the system under consideration could reflect the performance of genuine human beings; making it possible to obtain macroscopic physical properties of a human system by tuning a particular factor of the system, thus directly revealing cause and effect. As a result, both computer simulations and theoretical analyses help to show a few counterparts of some laws or phenomena in statistical physics for social human systems: two-phase phenomena or phase transitions, entropy-related phenomena, and a non-equilibrium steady state. This review highlights the role of human adaptability in these counterparts, and makes it possible to study or understand some particular social human systems by means of statistical physics coming from natural systems. (topical review - statistical physics and complex systems)

Evolution and non-equilibrium physics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Becker, Nikolaj; Sibani, Paolo

2014-01-01

We argue that the stochastic dynamics of interacting agents which replicate, mutate and die constitutes a non-equilibrium physical process akin to aging in complex materials. Specifically, our study uses extensive computer simulations of the Tangled Nature Model (TNM) of biological evolution...

Physical phenomena in a low-temperature non-equilibrium plasma and in MHD generators with non-equilibrium conductivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velikhov, E.P.; Golubev, V.S.; Dykhne, A.M.

1976-01-01

The paper assesses the position in 1975 of theoretical and experimental work on the physics of a magnetohydrodynamic generator with non-equilibrium plasma conductivity. This research started at the beginning of the 1960s; as work on the properties of thermally non-equilibrium plasma in magnetic fields and also in MHD generator ducts progressed, a number of phenomena were discovered and investigated that had either been unknown in plasma physics or had remained uninvestigated until that time: ionization instability and ionization turbulence of plasma in a magnetic field, acoustic instability of a plasma with anisotropic conductivity, the non-equilibrium ionization wave and the energy balance of a non-equilibrium plasma. At the same time, it was discovered what physical requirements an MHD generator with non-equilibrium conductivity must satisfy to achieve high efficiency in converting the thermal or kinetic energy of the gas flow into electric energy. The experiments on MHD power generation with thermally non-equilibrium plasma carried out up to 1975 indicated that it should be possible to achieve conversion efficiencies of up to 20-30%. (author)

Statistical physics of human beings in games: Controlled experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Yuan; Huang, Ji-Ping

2014-07-01

It is important to know whether the laws or phenomena in statistical physics for natural systems with non-adaptive agents still hold for social human systems with adaptive agents, because this implies whether it is possible to study or understand social human systems by using statistical physics originating from natural systems. For this purpose, we review the role of human adaptability in four kinds of specific human behaviors, namely, normal behavior, herd behavior, contrarian behavior, and hedge behavior. The approach is based on controlled experiments in the framework of market-directed resource-allocation games. The role of the controlled experiments could be at least two-fold: adopting the real human decision-making process so that the system under consideration could reflect the performance of genuine human beings; making it possible to obtain macroscopic physical properties of a human system by tuning a particular factor of the system, thus directly revealing cause and effect. As a result, both computer simulations and theoretical analyses help to show a few counterparts of some laws or phenomena in statistical physics for social human systems: two-phase phenomena or phase transitions, entropy-related phenomena, and a non-equilibrium steady state. This review highlights the role of human adaptability in these counterparts, and makes it possible to study or understand some particular social human systems by means of statistical physics coming from natural systems.

Statistical mechanics

CERN Document Server

Schwabl, Franz

2006-01-01

The completely revised new edition of the classical book on Statistical Mechanics covers the basic concepts of equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical physics. In addition to a deductive approach to equilibrium statistics and thermodynamics based on a single hypothesis - the form of the microcanonical density matrix - this book treats the most important elements of non-equilibrium phenomena. Intermediate calculations are presented in complete detail. Problems at the end of each chapter help students to consolidate their understanding of the material. Beyond the fundamentals, this text demonstrates the breadth of the field and its great variety of applications. Modern areas such as renormalization group theory, percolation, stochastic equations of motion and their applications to critical dynamics, kinetic theories, as well as fundamental considerations of irreversibility, are discussed. The text will be useful for advanced students of physics and other natural sciences; a basic knowledge of quantum mechan...

Statistical Physics

CERN Document Server

Wannier, Gregory Hugh

1966-01-01

Until recently, the field of statistical physics was traditionally taught as three separate subjects: thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory. This text, a forerunner in its field and now a classic, was the first to recognize the outdated reasons for their separation and to combine the essentials of the three subjects into one unified presentation of thermal physics. It has been widely adopted in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses, and is recommended throughout the field as an indispensable aid to the independent study and research of statistical physics.Designed for

Statistical Physics

CERN Document Server

Mandl, Franz

1988-01-01

The Manchester Physics Series General Editors: D. J. Sandiford; F. Mandl; A. C. Phillips Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester Properties of Matter B. H. Flowers and E. Mendoza Optics Second Edition F. G. Smith and J. H. Thomson Statistical Physics Second Edition E. Mandl Electromagnetism Second Edition I. S. Grant and W. R. Phillips Statistics R. J. Barlow Solid State Physics Second Edition J. R. Hook and H. E. Hall Quantum Mechanics F. Mandl Particle Physics Second Edition B. R. Martin and G. Shaw The Physics of Stars Second Edition A. C. Phillips Computing for Scient

Non-equilibrium statistical theory about microscopic fatigue cracks of metal in magnetic field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao-Long, Liu; Hai-Yun, Hu; Tian-You, Fan; Xiu-San, Xing

2010-01-01

This paper develops the non-equilibrium statistical fatigue damage theory to study the statistical behaviour of micro-crack for metals in magnetic field. The one-dimensional homogeneous crack system is chosen for study. To investigate the effect caused by magnetic field on the statistical distribution of micro-crack in the system, the theoretical analysis on microcrack evolution equation, the average length of micro-crack, density distribution function of micro-crack and fatigue fracture probability have been performed. The derived results relate the changes of some quantities, such as average length, density distribution function and fatigue fracture probability, to the applied magnetic field, the magnetic and mechanical properties of metals. It gives a theoretical explanation on the change of fatigue damage due to magnetic fields observed by experiments, and presents an analytic approach on studying the fatigue damage of metal in magnetic field. (cross-disciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

Equilibrium statistical mechanics of lattice models

CERN Document Server

Lavis, David A

2015-01-01

Most interesting and difficult problems in equilibrium statistical mechanics concern models which exhibit phase transitions. For graduate students and more experienced researchers this book provides an invaluable reference source of approximate and exact solutions for a comprehensive range of such models. Part I contains background material on classical thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, together with a classification and survey of lattice models. The geometry of phase transitions is described and scaling theory is used to introduce critical exponents and scaling laws. An introduction is given to finite-size scaling, conformal invariance and Schramm—Loewner evolution. Part II contains accounts of classical mean-field methods. The parallels between Landau expansions and catastrophe theory are discussed and Ginzburg—Landau theory is introduced. The extension of mean-field theory to higher-orders is explored using the Kikuchi—Hijmans—De Boer hierarchy of approximations. In Part III the use of alge...

Statistical equilibrium and symplectic geometry in general relativity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iglesias, P.

1981-09-01

A geometrical construction is given of the statistical equilibrium states of a system of particles in the gravitational field in general relativity. By a method of localization variables, the expression of thermodynamic values is given and the compatibility of this description is shown with a macroscopic model of a relativistic continuous medium for a given value of the free-energy function [fr

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics and physical kinetics

CERN Document Server

Bikkin, Halid

2014-01-01

This graduate textbook covers contemporary directions of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics as well as classical methods of kinetics. With one of the main propositions being to avoid terms such as "obviously" and "it is easy to show", this treatise is an easy-to-read introduction into this traditional, yet vibrant field.

Phase Equilibrium, Chemical Equilibrium, and a Test of the Third Law: Experiments for Physical Chemistry.

Science.gov (United States)

Dannhauser, Walter

1980-01-01

Described is an experiment designed to provide an experimental basis for a unifying point of view (utilizing theoretical framework and chemistry laboratory experiments) for physical chemistry students. Three experiments are described: phase equilibrium, chemical equilibrium, and a test of the third law of thermodynamics. (Author/DS)

Theoretical physics 8 statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Nolting, Wolfgang

2018-01-01

This textbook offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to statistical physics, one of the core components of advanced undergraduate physics courses. It follows on naturally from the previous volumes in this series, using methods of probability theory and statistics to solve physical problems. The first part of the book gives a detailed overview on classical statistical physics and introduces all mathematical tools needed. The second part of the book covers topics related to quantized states, gives a thorough introduction to quantum statistics, followed by a concise treatment of quantum gases. Ideally suited to undergraduate students with some grounding in quantum mechanics, the book is enhanced throughout with learning features such as boxed inserts and chapter summaries, with key mathematical derivations highlighted to aid understanding. The text is supported by numerous worked examples and end of chapter problem sets. About the Theoretical Physics series Translated from the renowned and highly successf...

SRB states and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics close to equilibrium

OpenAIRE

Gallavotti, Giovannni; Ruelle, David

1996-01-01

Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics close to equilibrium is studied using SRB states and a formula for their derivatives with respect to parameters. We write general expressions for the thermodynamic fluxes (or currents) and the transport coefficients, generalizing previous results. In this framework we give a general proof of the Onsager reciprocity relations.

A statistical method for evaluation of the experimental phase equilibrium data of simple clathrate hydrates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eslamimanesh, Ali; Gharagheizi, Farhad; Mohammadi, Amir H.

2012-01-01

We, herein, present a statistical method for diagnostics of the outliers in phase equilibrium data (dissociation data) of simple clathrate hydrates. The applied algorithm is performed on the basis of the Leverage mathematical approach, in which the statistical Hat matrix, Williams Plot, and the r......We, herein, present a statistical method for diagnostics of the outliers in phase equilibrium data (dissociation data) of simple clathrate hydrates. The applied algorithm is performed on the basis of the Leverage mathematical approach, in which the statistical Hat matrix, Williams Plot...... in exponential form is used to represent/predict the hydrate dissociation pressures for three-phase equilibrium conditions (liquid water/ice–vapor-hydrate). The investigated hydrate formers are methane, ethane, propane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and hydrogen sulfide. It is interpreted from the obtained results...

A statistical mechanical model for equilibrium ionization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Macris, N.; Martin, P.A.; Pule, J.

1990-01-01

A quantum electron interacts with a classical gas of hard spheres and is in thermal equilibrium with it. The interaction is attractive and the electron can form a bound state with the classical particles. It is rigorously shown that in a well defined low density and low temperature limit, the ionization probability for the electron tends to the value predicted by the Saha formula for thermal ionization. In this regime, the electron is found to be in a statistical mixture of a bound and a free state. (orig.)

Statistical physics and computational methods for evolutionary game theory

CERN Document Server

Javarone, Marco Alberto

2018-01-01

This book presents an introduction to Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT) which is an emerging field in the area of complex systems attracting the attention of researchers from disparate scientific communities. EGT allows one to represent and study several complex phenomena, such as the emergence of cooperation in social systems, the role of conformity in shaping the equilibrium of a population, and the dynamics in biological and ecological systems. Since EGT models belong to the area of complex systems, statistical physics constitutes a fundamental ingredient for investigating their behavior. At the same time, the complexity of some EGT models, such as those realized by means of agent-based methods, often require the implementation of numerical simulations. Therefore, beyond providing an introduction to EGT, this book gives a brief overview of the main statistical physics tools (such as phase transitions and the Ising model) and computational strategies for simulating evolutionary games (such as Monte Carlo algor...

Equilibrium statistical mechanics for self-gravitating systems: local ergodicity and extended Boltzmann-Gibbs/White-Narayan statistics

Science.gov (United States)

He, Ping

2012-01-01

The long-standing puzzle surrounding the statistical mechanics of self-gravitating systems has not yet been solved successfully. We formulate a systematic theoretical framework of entropy-based statistical mechanics for spherically symmetric collisionless self-gravitating systems. We use an approach that is very different from that of the conventional statistical mechanics of short-range interaction systems. We demonstrate that the equilibrium states of self-gravitating systems consist of both mechanical and statistical equilibria, with the former characterized by a series of velocity-moment equations and the latter by statistical equilibrium equations, which should be derived from the entropy principle. The velocity-moment equations of all orders are derived from the steady-state collisionless Boltzmann equation. We point out that the ergodicity is invalid for the whole self-gravitating system, but it can be re-established locally. Based on the local ergodicity, using Fermi-Dirac-like statistics, with the non-degenerate condition and the spatial independence of the local microstates, we rederive the Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy. This is consistent with the validity of the collisionless Boltzmann equation, and should be the correct entropy form for collisionless self-gravitating systems. Apart from the usual constraints of mass and energy conservation, we demonstrate that the series of moment or virialization equations must be included as additional constraints on the entropy functional when performing the variational calculus; this is an extension to the original prescription by White & Narayan. Any possible velocity distribution can be produced by the statistical-mechanical approach that we have developed with the extended Boltzmann-Gibbs/White-Narayan statistics. Finally, we discuss the questions of negative specific heat and ensemble inequivalence for self-gravitating systems.

Statistical mechanics and the physics of fluids

CERN Document Server

Tosi, Mario

This volume collects the lecture notes of a course on statistical mechanics, held at Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa for third-to-fifth year students in physics and chemistry. Three main themes are covered in the book. The first part gives a compact presentation of the foundations of statistical mechanics and their connections with thermodynamics. Applications to ideal gases of material particles and of excitation quanta are followed by a brief introduction to a real classical gas and to a weakly coupled classical plasma, and by a broad overview on the three states of matter.The second part is devoted to fluctuations around equilibrium and their correlations. Coverage of liquid structure and critical phenomena is followed by a discussion of irreversible processes as exemplified by diffusive motions and by the dynamics of density and heat fluctuations. Finally, the third part is an introduction to some advanced themes: supercooling and the glassy state, non-Newtonian fluids including polymers and liquid cryst...

Infinite-mode squeezed coherent states and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics (phase-space-picture approach)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yeh, L.

1992-01-01

The phase-space-picture approach to quantum non-equilibrium statistical mechanics via the characteristic function of infinite- mode squeezed coherent states is introduced. We use quantum Brownian motion as an example to show how this approach provides an interesting geometrical interpretation of quantum non-equilibrium phenomena

Statistical Physics An Introduction

CERN Document Server

Yoshioka, Daijiro

2007-01-01

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of the basics of statistical physics. The first part explains the essence of statistical physics and how it provides a bridge between microscopic and macroscopic phenomena, allowing one to derive quantities such as entropy. Here the author avoids going into details such as Liouville’s theorem or the ergodic theorem, which are difficult for beginners and unnecessary for the actual application of the statistical mechanics. In the second part, statistical mechanics is applied to various systems which, although they look different, share the same mathematical structure. In this way readers can deepen their understanding of statistical physics. The book also features applications to quantum dynamics, thermodynamics, the Ising model and the statistical dynamics of free spins.

Conceptual Integration of Chemical Equilibrium by Prospective Physical Sciences Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Ganaras, Kostas; Dumon, Alain; Larcher, Claudine

2008-01-01

This article describes an empirical study concerning the mastering of the chemical equilibrium concept by prospective physical sciences teachers. The main objective was to check whether the concept of chemical equilibrium had become an integrating and unifying concept for them, that is to say an operational and functional knowledge to explain and…

Thermodynamics and statistical physics. 2. rev. ed.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schnakenberg, J.

2002-01-01

This textbook covers tthe following topics: Thermodynamic systems and equilibrium, irreversible thermodynamics, thermodynamic potentials, stability, thermodynamic processes, ideal systems, real gases and phase transformations, magnetic systems and Landau model, low temperature thermodynamics, canonical ensembles, statistical theory, quantum statistics, fermions and bosons, kinetic theory, Bose-Einstein condensation, photon gas

Coronal emission-line polarization from the statistical equilibrium of magnetic sublevels. I. Fe XII

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

House, L.L.

1977-01-01

A general formulation for the polarization of coronal emission lines is presented, and the physics is illustrated through application of the formulation to the lines of Fe XIII at 10747 and 10798 A. The goal is to present a foundation for the determination of the orientation of coronal magnetic fields from emission-line polarization measurements. The physics of emission-line polarization is discussed using the statistical equilibrium equations for the magnetic sublevels of a coronal ion. The formulation of these equations, which describe the polarization of the radiation field in terms of Stokes parameters, is presented; and the various rate parameters: both radiative and collisional: are considered. The emission Stokes vector is constructed from the solution of the equilibrium equations for a point in the corona where the magnetic field has an arbitrary orientation. On the basis of a model, a computer code for the calculation of emission-line polarization is briefly described and illustrated with a number of sample calculations for Fe XIII. Calculations are carried out for three-dimensional models that demonstrate the physics of the formation of emission-line polarization and illustrate how the degree of polarization and angle of polarization and their variations over the corona are related to the density and magnetic field structure. The models considered range from simple cases in which the density distribution with height is spherically symmetric and the field is radial or dipole to a complex case in which both the density and magnetic field distributions are derived from realistic three-dimensional distributions for the 1973 eclipse on the basis of K-coronameter measurements for the density and potential-field extrapolation of surface magnetic fields in the corona

Thermal equilibrium and statistical thermometers in special relativity.

Science.gov (United States)

Cubero, David; Casado-Pascual, Jesús; Dunkel, Jörn; Talkner, Peter; Hänggi, Peter

2007-10-26

There is an intense debate in the recent literature about the correct generalization of Maxwell's velocity distribution in special relativity. The most frequently discussed candidate distributions include the Jüttner function as well as modifications thereof. Here we report results from fully relativistic one-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations that resolve the ambiguity. The numerical evidence unequivocally favors the Jüttner distribution. Moreover, our simulations illustrate that the concept of "thermal equilibrium" extends naturally to special relativity only if a many-particle system is spatially confined. They make evident that "temperature" can be statistically defined and measured in an observer frame independent way.

Improvement of characteristic statistic algorithm and its application on equilibrium cycle reloading optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, Y.; Liu, Z.; Shi, X.; Wang, B.

2006-01-01

A brief introduction of characteristic statistic algorithm (CSA) is given in the paper, which is a new global optimization algorithm to solve the problem of PWR in-core fuel management optimization. CSA is modified by the adoption of back propagation neural network and fast local adjustment. Then the modified CSA is applied to PWR Equilibrium Cycle Reloading Optimization, and the corresponding optimization code of CSA-DYW is developed. CSA-DYW is used to optimize the equilibrium cycle of 18 month reloading of Daya bay nuclear plant Unit 1 reactor. The results show that CSA-DYW has high efficiency and good global performance on PWR Equilibrium Cycle Reloading Optimization. (authors)

Quantum physics and statistical physics. 5. ed.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alonso, Marcelo; Finn, Edward J.

2012-01-01

By logical and uniform presentation this recognized introduction in modern physics treats both the experimental and theoretical aspects. The first part of the book deals with quantum mechanics and their application to atoms, molecules, nuclei, solids, and elementary particles. The statistical physics with classical statistics, thermodynamics, and quantum statistics is theme of the second part. Alsonso and Finn avoid complicated mathematical developments; by numerous sketches and diagrams as well as many problems and examples they make the reader early and above all easily understandably familiar with the formations of concepts of modern physics.

Pre-equilibrium assumptions and statistical model parameters effects on reaction cross-section calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Avrigeanu, M.; Avrigeanu, V.

1992-02-01

A systematic study on effects of statistical model parameters and semi-classical pre-equilibrium emission models has been carried out for the (n,p) reactions on the 56 Fe and 60 Co target nuclei. The results obtained by using various assumptions within a given pre-equilibrium emission model differ among them more than the ones of different models used under similar conditions. The necessity of using realistic level density formulas is emphasized especially in connection with pre-equilibrium emission models (i.e. with the exciton state density expression), while a basic support could be found only by replacement of the Williams exciton state density formula with a realistic one. (author). 46 refs, 12 figs, 3 tabs

From statistic mechanic outside equilibrium to transport equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balian, R.

1995-01-01

This lecture notes give a synthetic view on the foundations of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. The purpose is to establish the transport equations satisfied by the relevant variables, starting from the microscopic dynamics. The Liouville representation is introduced, and a projection associates with any density operator , for given choice of relevant observables, a reduced density operator. An exact integral-differential equation for the relevant variables is thereby derived. A short-memory approximation then yields the transport equations. A relevant entropy which characterizes the coarseness of the description is associated with each level of description. As an illustration, the classical gas, with its three levels of description and with the Chapman-Enskog method, is discussed. (author). 3 figs., 5 refs

Methods of statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Akhiezer, Aleksandr I

1981-01-01

Methods of Statistical Physics is an exposition of the tools of statistical mechanics, which evaluates the kinetic equations of classical and quantized systems. The book also analyzes the equations of macroscopic physics, such as the equations of hydrodynamics for normal and superfluid liquids and macroscopic electrodynamics. The text gives particular attention to the study of quantum systems. This study begins with a discussion of problems of quantum statistics with a detailed description of the basics of quantum mechanics along with the theory of measurement. An analysis of the asymptotic be

Statistical mechanics of driven diffusive systems

CERN Document Server

Schmittmann, B

1995-01-01

Far-from-equilibrium phenomena, while abundant in nature, are not nearly as well understood as their equilibrium counterparts. On the theoretical side, progress is slowed by the lack of a simple framework, such as the Boltzmann-Gbbs paradigm in the case of equilibrium thermodynamics. On the experimental side, the enormous structural complexity of real systems poses serious obstacles to comprehension. Similar difficulties have been overcome in equilibrium statistical mechanics by focusing on model systems. Even if they seem too simplistic for known physical systems, models give us considerable insight, provided they capture the essential physics. They serve as important theoretical testing grounds where the relationship between the generic physical behavior and the key ingredients of a successful theory can be identified and understood in detail. Within the vast realm of non-equilibrium physics, driven diffusive systems form a subset with particularly interesting properties. As a prototype model for these syst...

Statistical symmetries in physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Green, H.S.; Adelaide Univ., SA

1994-01-01

Every law of physics is invariant under some group of transformations and is therefore the expression of some type of symmetry. Symmetries are classified as geometrical, dynamical or statistical. At the most fundamental level, statistical symmetries are expressed in the field theories of the elementary particles. This paper traces some of the developments from the discovery of Bose statistics, one of the two fundamental symmetries of physics. A series of generalizations of Bose statistics is described. A supersymmetric generalization accommodates fermions as well as bosons, and further generalizations, including parastatistics, modular statistics and graded statistics, accommodate particles with properties such as 'colour'. A factorization of elements of ggl(n b ,n f ) can be used to define truncated boson operators. A general construction is given for q-deformed boson operators, and explicit constructions of the same type are given for various 'deformed' algebras. A summary is given of some of the applications and potential applications. 39 refs., 2 figs

What Can Reinforcement Learning Teach Us About Non-Equilibrium Quantum Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Bukov, Marin; Day, Alexandre; Sels, Dries; Weinberg, Phillip; Polkovnikov, Anatoli; Mehta, Pankaj

Equilibrium thermodynamics and statistical physics are the building blocks of modern science and technology. Yet, our understanding of thermodynamic processes away from equilibrium is largely missing. In this talk, I will reveal the potential of what artificial intelligence can teach us about the complex behaviour of non-equilibrium systems. Specifically, I will discuss the problem of finding optimal drive protocols to prepare a desired target state in quantum mechanical systems by applying ideas from Reinforcement Learning [one can think of Reinforcement Learning as the study of how an agent (e.g. a robot) can learn and perfect a given policy through interactions with an environment.]. The driving protocols learnt by our agent suggest that the non-equilibrium world features possibilities easily defying intuition based on equilibrium physics.

Proton-rich nuclear statistical equilibrium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seitenzahl, I.R.; Timmes, F.X.; Marin-Lafleche, A.; Brown, E.; Magkotsios, G.; Truran, J.

2008-01-01

Proton-rich material in a state of nuclear statistical equilibrium (NSE) is one of the least studied regimes of nucleosynthesis. One reason for this is that after hydrogen burning, stellar evolution proceeds at conditions of an equal number of neutrons and protons or at a slight degree of neutron-richness. Proton-rich nucleosynthesis in stars tends to occur only when hydrogen-rich material that accretes onto a white dwarf or a neutron star explodes, or when neutrino interactions in the winds from a nascent proto-neutron star or collapsar disk drive the matter proton-rich prior to or during the nucleosynthesis. In this Letter we solve the NSE equations for a range of proton-rich thermodynamic conditions. We show that cold proton-rich NSE is qualitatively different from neutron-rich NSE. Instead of being dominated by the Fe-peak nuclei with the largest binding energy per nucleon that have a proton-to-nucleon ratio close to the prescribed electron fraction, NSE for proton-rich material near freezeout temperature is mainly composed of 56Ni and free protons. Previous results of nuclear reaction network calculations rely on this nonintuitive high-proton abundance, which this Letter explains. We show how the differences and especially the large fraction of free protons arises from the minimization of the free energy as a result of a delicate competition between the entropy and nuclear binding energy.

The scientifiv way of thinking in statistics, statistical physics and quantum mechanics

OpenAIRE

Săvoiu, Gheorghe

2008-01-01

This paper focuses on the way of thinking in both classical and modern Physics and Statistics, Statistical Mechanics or Statistical Physics and Quantum Mechanics. These different statistical ways of thinking and their specific methods have generated new fields for new activities and new scientific disciplines, like Econophysics (between Economics and Physics), Sociophysics (between Sociology and Physics), Mediaphysics (between all media and comunication sciences), etc. After describing some r...

The scientific way of thinking in statistics, statistical physics and quantum mechanics

OpenAIRE

Săvoiu, Gheorghe

2008-01-01

This paper focuses on the way of thinking in both classical and modern Physics and Statistics, Statistical Mechanics or Statistical Physics and Quantum Mechanics. These different statistical ways of thinking and their specific methods have generated new fields for new activities and new scientific disciplines, like Econophysics (between Economics and Physics), Sociophysics (between Sociology and Physics), Mediaphysics (between all media and comunication sciences), etc. After describing some r...

Statistical methods in radiation physics

CERN Document Server

Turner, James E; Bogard, James S

2012-01-01

This statistics textbook, with particular emphasis on radiation protection and dosimetry, deals with statistical solutions to problems inherent in health physics measurements and decision making. The authors begin with a description of our current understanding of the statistical nature of physical processes at the atomic level, including radioactive decay and interactions of radiation with matter. Examples are taken from problems encountered in health physics, and the material is presented such that health physicists and most other nuclear professionals will more readily understand the application of statistical principles in the familiar context of the examples. Problems are presented at the end of each chapter, with solutions to selected problems provided online. In addition, numerous worked examples are included throughout the text.

Classical and Quantum Models in Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics: Moment Methods and Long-Time Approximations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramon F. Alvarez-Estrada

2012-02-01

Full Text Available We consider non-equilibrium open statistical systems, subject to potentials and to external “heat baths” (hb at thermal equilibrium at temperature T (either with ab initio dissipation or without it. Boltzmann’s classical equilibrium distributions generate, as Gaussian weight functions in momenta, orthogonal polynomials in momenta (the position-independent Hermite polynomialsHn’s. The moments of non-equilibrium classical distributions, implied by the Hn’s, fulfill a hierarchy: for long times, the lowest moment dominates the evolution towards thermal equilibrium, either with dissipation or without it (but under certain approximation. We revisit that hierarchy, whose solution depends on operator continued fractions. We review our generalization of that moment method to classical closed many-particle interacting systems with neither a hb nor ab initio dissipation: with initial states describing thermal equilibrium at T at large distances but non-equilibrium at finite distances, the moment method yields, approximately, irreversible thermalization of the whole system at T, for long times. Generalizations to non-equilibrium quantum interacting systems meet additional difficulties. Three of them are: (i equilibrium distributions (represented through Wigner functions are neither Gaussian in momenta nor known in closed form; (ii they may depend on dissipation; and (iii the orthogonal polynomials in momenta generated by them depend also on positions. We generalize the moment method, dealing with (i, (ii and (iii, to some non-equilibrium one-particle quantum interacting systems. Open problems are discussed briefly.

Statistical thermodynamics of equilibrium polymers at interfaces

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gucht, van der J.; Besseling, N.A.M.

2002-01-01

The behavior of a solution of equilibrium polymers (or living polymers) at an interface is studied, using a Bethe-Guggenheim lattice model for molecules with orientation dependent interactions. The density profile of polymers and the chain length distribution are calculated. For equilibrium polymers

Important contributions of M.C. Wang and C.S. Wang Chang to non-equilibrium statistical physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Jixing

2004-01-01

In the middle of the 20th century two Chinese women physicists, Ming-Chen Wang and Cheng-Shu Wang Chang made great contributions to statistical physics. The famous review article 'On the theory of the Brownian motion II' by Ming-Chen Wang and G.E. Uhlenbeck published in Rev. of Mod. Phys. in 1945 provided a complete scientific classification of stochastic processes which is still adopted by the scientific community as the standard classification. The Wang-Chang-Uhlenbeck (WCU) equation proposed jointly by C.S. Wang-Chang and Uhlenbeck became the fundamental kinetic equation for the treatment of transport properties of multi-atomic gases with internal degrees of freedom in the physics literature. These important scientific contributions are analyzed and reviewed

Basics of statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Müller-Kirsten, Harald J W

2013-01-01

Statistics links microscopic and macroscopic phenomena, and requires for this reason a large number of microscopic elements like atoms. The results are values of maximum probability or of averaging. This introduction to statistical physics concentrates on the basic principles, and attempts to explain these in simple terms supplemented by numerous examples. These basic principles include the difference between classical and quantum statistics, a priori probabilities as related to degeneracies, the vital aspect of indistinguishability as compared with distinguishability in classical physics, the differences between conserved and non-conserved elements, the different ways of counting arrangements in the three statistics (Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein), the difference between maximization of the number of arrangements of elements, and averaging in the Darwin-Fowler method. Significant applications to solids, radiation and electrons in metals are treated in separate chapters, as well as Bose-Eins...

Physics colloquium: Electron counting in quantum dots in and out of equilibrium

CERN Multimedia

Geneva University

2011-01-01

GENEVA UNIVERSITY Ecole de physique Département de physique nucléaire et corspusculaire 24, quai Ernest-Ansermet 1211 Genève 4 Tél.: (022) 379 62 73 Fax: (022) 379 69 92olé   Lundi 31 octobre 2011 17h00 - Ecole de Physique, Auditoire Stueckelberg PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM « Electron counting in quantum dots in and out of equilibrium » Prof. Klaus Ensslin Solid State Physics Laboratory, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland   Electron transport through quantum dots is governed by Coulomb blockade. Using a nearby quantum point contact the time-dependent charge flow through quantum dots can be monitored on the basis of single electrons. This way electron transport has been investigated in equilibrium as well as out of equilibrium. Recently it has become possible to experimentally verify the fluctuation theorem. The talk will also address electron counting experiments in grapheme. Une verrée ...

Stochastic Spatial Models in Ecology: A Statistical Physics Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Pigolotti, Simone; Cencini, Massimo; Molina, Daniel; Muñoz, Miguel A.

2017-11-01

Ecosystems display a complex spatial organization. Ecologists have long tried to characterize them by looking at how different measures of biodiversity change across spatial scales. Ecological neutral theory has provided simple predictions accounting for general empirical patterns in communities of competing species. However, while neutral theory in well-mixed ecosystems is mathematically well understood, spatial models still present several open problems, limiting the quantitative understanding of spatial biodiversity. In this review, we discuss the state of the art in spatial neutral theory. We emphasize the connection between spatial ecological models and the physics of non-equilibrium phase transitions and how concepts developed in statistical physics translate in population dynamics, and vice versa. We focus on non-trivial scaling laws arising at the critical dimension D = 2 of spatial neutral models, and their relevance for biological populations inhabiting two-dimensional environments. We conclude by discussing models incorporating non-neutral effects in the form of spatial and temporal disorder, and analyze how their predictions deviate from those of purely neutral theories.

Statistical Physics of Colloidal Dispersions.

Science.gov (United States)

Canessa, E.

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. This thesis is concerned with the equilibrium statistical mechanics of colloidal dispersions which represent useful model systems for the study of condensed matter physics; namely, charge stabilized colloidal dispersions and polymer stabilized colloidal dispersions. A one-component macroparticle approach is adopted in order to treat the macroscopic and microscopic properties of these systems in a simple and comprehensive manner. The thesis opens with the description of the nature of the colloidal state before reviewing some basic definitions and theory in Chapter II. In Chapter III a variational theory of phase equilibria based on the Gibbs-Bogolyobov inequality is applied to sterically stabilized colloidal dispersions. Hard spheres are chosen as the reference system for the disordered phases while an Einstein model is used for the ordered phases. The new choice of pair potential, taken for mathematical convenience, is a superposition of two Yukawa functions. By matching a double Yukawa potential to the van der Waals attractive potential at different temperatures and introducing a purely temperature dependent coefficient to the repulsive part, a rich variety of observed phase separation phenomena is qualitatively described. The behaviour of the potential is found to be consistent with a small decrease of the polymer layer thickness with increasing temperature. Using the same concept of a collapse transition the non-monotonic second virial coefficient is also explained and quantified. It is shown that a reduction of the effective macroparticle diameter with increasing temperature can only be partially examined from the point of view of a (binary-) polymer solution theory. This chapter concludes with the description of the observed, reversible, depletion flocculation behaviour. This is accomplished by using the variational formalism and by invoking the double Yukawa potential to allow

Modular reweighting software for statistical mechanical analysis of biased equilibrium data

Science.gov (United States)

Sindhikara, Daniel J.

2012-07-01

Here a simple, useful, modular approach and software suite designed for statistical reweighting and analysis of equilibrium ensembles is presented. Statistical reweighting is useful and sometimes necessary for analysis of equilibrium enhanced sampling methods, such as umbrella sampling or replica exchange, and also in experimental cases where biasing factors are explicitly known. Essentially, statistical reweighting allows extrapolation of data from one or more equilibrium ensembles to another. Here, the fundamental separable steps of statistical reweighting are broken up into modules - allowing for application to the general case and avoiding the black-box nature of some “all-inclusive” reweighting programs. Additionally, the programs included are, by-design, written with little dependencies. The compilers required are either pre-installed on most systems, or freely available for download with minimal trouble. Examples of the use of this suite applied to umbrella sampling and replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations will be shown along with advice on how to apply it in the general case. New version program summaryProgram title: Modular reweighting version 2 Catalogue identifier: AEJH_v2_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEJH_v2_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License, version 3 No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 179 118 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 8 518 178 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C++, Python 2.6+, Perl 5+ Computer: Any Operating system: Any RAM: 50-500 MB Supplementary material: An updated version of the original manuscript (Comput. Phys. Commun. 182 (2011) 2227) is available Classification: 4.13 Catalogue identifier of previous version: AEJH_v1_0 Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Commun. 182 (2011) 2227 Does the new

Near-equilibrium dumb-bell-shaped figures for cohesionless small bodies

Science.gov (United States)

Descamps, Pascal

2016-02-01

In a previous paper (Descamps, P. [2015]. Icarus 245, 64-79), we developed a specific method aimed to retrieve the main physical characteristics (shape, density, surface scattering properties) of highly elongated bodies from their rotational lightcurves through the use of dumb-bell-shaped equilibrium figures. The present work is a test of this method. For that purpose we introduce near-equilibrium dumb-bell-shaped figures which are base dumb-bell equilibrium shapes modulated by lognormal statistics. Such synthetic irregular models are used to generate lightcurves from which our method is successfully applied. Shape statistical parameters of such near-equilibrium dumb-bell-shaped objects are in good agreement with those calculated for example for the Asteroid (216) Kleopatra from its dog-bone radar model. It may suggest that such bilobed and elongated asteroids can be approached by equilibrium figures perturbed be the interplay with a substantial internal friction modeled by a Gaussian random sphere.

Physics of far-from-equilibrium systems and self-organization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nicolis, G.

1993-01-01

The status of self-organization phenomena from the stand point of the physical sciences are analyzed. Non linear dynamics and the presence of constraints maintaining the system far from equilibrium are shown to be the basic mechanism involved in the emergence of these phenomena. Some particularly representative experiments are first presented: thermal conversion, chemical reactions (Benard problem), biological systems, and their explanation through order, disorder, non-linearity, irreversibility, stability, bifurcation, symmetry breaking, etc., concepts. Then it is shown how the self-organization paradigm allows to model problems outside the traditional realm of the physical sciences. 29 figs., 27 refs

Elementary statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Kittel, C

1965-01-01

This book is intended to help physics students attain a modest working knowledge of several areas of statistical mechanics, including stochastic processes and transport theory. The areas discussed are among those forming a useful part of the intellectual background of a physicist.

Annotations to quantum statistical mechanics

CERN Document Server

Kim, In-Gee

2018-01-01

This book is a rewritten and annotated version of Leo P. Kadanoff and Gordon Baym’s lectures that were presented in the book Quantum Statistical Mechanics: Green’s Function Methods in Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Problems. The lectures were devoted to a discussion on the use of thermodynamic Green’s functions in describing the properties of many-particle systems. The functions provided a method for discussing finite-temperature problems with no more conceptual difficulty than ground-state problems, and the method was equally applicable to boson and fermion systems and equilibrium and nonequilibrium problems. The lectures also explained nonequilibrium statistical physics in a systematic way and contained essential concepts on statistical physics in terms of Green’s functions with sufficient and rigorous details. In-Gee Kim thoroughly studied the lectures during one of his research projects but found that the unspecialized method used to present them in the form of a book reduced their readability. He st...

Statistical thermodynamics of association colloids : the equilibrium structure of micelles, vesicles, and bilayer membranes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leermakers, F.A.M.

1988-01-01

The aim of the present study was to unravel the general equilibrium physical properties of lipid bilayer membranes. We consider four major questions:
1. What determines the morphology of the association colloids (micelles, membranes, vesicles) in general?
2. Do the

Reconstructing Macroeconomics Based on Statistical Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Aoki, Masanao; Yoshikawa, Hiroshi

We believe that time has come to integrate the new approach based on statistical physics or econophysics into macroeconomics. Toward this goal, there must be more dialogues between physicists and economists. In this paper, we argue that there is no reason why the methods of statistical physics so successful in many fields of natural sciences cannot be usefully applied to macroeconomics that is meant to analyze the macroeconomy comprising a large number of economic agents. It is, in fact, weird to regard the macroeconomy as a homothetic enlargement of the representative micro agent. We trust the bright future of the new approach to macroeconomies based on statistical physics.

Self-organization of grafted polyelectrolyte layers via the coupling of chemical equilibrium and physical interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Tagliazucchi, Mario; de la Cruz, Mónica Olvera; Szleifer, Igal

2010-03-23

The competition between chemical equilibrium, for example protonation, and physical interactions determines the molecular organization and functionality of biological and synthetic systems. Charge regulation by displacement of acid-base equilibrium induced by changes in the local environment provides a feedback mechanism that controls the balance between electrostatic, van der Waals, steric interactions and molecular organization. Which strategies do responsive systems follow to globally optimize chemical equilibrium and physical interactions? We address this question by theoretically studying model layers of end-grafted polyacids. These layers spontaneously form self-assembled aggregates, presenting domains of controlled local pH and whose morphologies can be manipulated by the composition of the solution in contact with the film. Charge regulation stabilizes micellar domains over a wide range of pH by reducing the local charge in the aggregate at the cost of chemical free energy and gaining in hydrophobic interactions. This balance determines the boundaries between different aggregate morphologies. We show that a qualitatively new form of organization arises from the coupling between physical interactions and protonation equilibrium. This optimization strategy presents itself with polyelectrolytes coexisting in two different and well-defined protonation states. Our results underline the need of considering the coupling between chemical equilibrium and physical interactions due to their highly nonadditive behavior. The predictions provide guidelines for the creation of responsive polymer layers presenting self-organized patterns with functional properties and they give insights for the understanding of competing interactions in highly inhomogeneous and constrained environments such as those relevant in nanotechnology and those responsible for biological cells function.

Introduction to modern theoretical physics. Volume II. Quantum theory and statistical physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harris, E.G.

1975-01-01

The topics discussed include the history and principles, some solvable problems, and symmetry in quantum mechanics, interference phenomena, approximation methods, some applications of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, relativistic wave equations, quantum theory of radiation, second quantization, elementary particles and their interactions, thermodynamics, equilibrium statistical mechanics and its applications, the kinetic theory of gases, and collective phenomena

Statistical methods for physical science

CERN Document Server

Stanford, John L

1994-01-01

This volume of Methods of Experimental Physics provides an extensive introduction to probability and statistics in many areas of the physical sciences, with an emphasis on the emerging area of spatial statistics. The scope of topics covered is wide-ranging-the text discusses a variety of the most commonly used classical methods and addresses newer methods that are applicable or potentially important. The chapter authors motivate readers with their insightful discussions, augmenting their material withKey Features* Examines basic probability, including coverage of standard distributions, time s

Statistical and thermal physics with computer applications

CERN Document Server

Gould, Harvey

2010-01-01

This textbook carefully develops the main ideas and techniques of statistical and thermal physics and is intended for upper-level undergraduate courses. The authors each have more than thirty years' experience in teaching, curriculum development, and research in statistical and computational physics. Statistical and Thermal Physics begins with a qualitative discussion of the relation between the macroscopic and microscopic worlds and incorporates computer simulations throughout the book to provide concrete examples of important conceptual ideas. Unlike many contemporary texts on the

The efficiency of driving chemical reactions by a physical non-equilibrium is kinetically controlled.

Science.gov (United States)

Göppel, Tobias; Palyulin, Vladimir V; Gerland, Ulrich

2016-07-27

An out-of-equilibrium physical environment can drive chemical reactions into thermodynamically unfavorable regimes. Under prebiotic conditions such a coupling between physical and chemical non-equilibria may have enabled the spontaneous emergence of primitive evolutionary processes. Here, we study the coupling efficiency within a theoretical model that is inspired by recent laboratory experiments, but focuses on generic effects arising whenever reactant and product molecules have different transport coefficients in a flow-through system. In our model, the physical non-equilibrium is represented by a drift-diffusion process, which is a valid coarse-grained description for the interplay between thermophoresis and convection, as well as for many other molecular transport processes. As a simple chemical reaction, we consider a reversible dimerization process, which is coupled to the transport process by different drift velocities for monomers and dimers. Within this minimal model, the coupling efficiency between the non-equilibrium transport process and the chemical reaction can be analyzed in all parameter regimes. The analysis shows that the efficiency depends strongly on the Damköhler number, a parameter that measures the relative timescales associated with the transport and reaction kinetics. Our model and results will be useful for a better understanding of the conditions for which non-equilibrium environments can provide a significant driving force for chemical reactions in a prebiotic setting.

Statistical equilibrium of copper in the solar atmosphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi, J. R.; Mashonkina, L.; Zhao, G.; Gehren, T.; Zeng, J. L.

2014-01-01

Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) line formation for neutral copper in the one-dimensional solar atmospheres is presented for the atomic model, including 96 terms of Cu I and the ground state of Cu II. The accurate oscillator strengths for all the line transitions in model atom and photoionization cross sections were calculated using the R-matrix method in the Russell-Saunders coupling scheme. The main NLTE mechanism for Cu I is the ultraviolet overionization. We find that NLTE leads to systematically depleted total absorption in the Cu I lines and, accordingly, positive abundance corrections. Inelastic collisions with neutral hydrogen atoms produce minor effects on the statistical equilibrium of Cu I in the solar atmosphere. For the solar Cu I lines, the departures from LTE are found to be small, the mean NLTE abundance correction of ∼0.01 dex. It was found that the six low-excitation lines, with excitation energy of the lower level E exc ≤ 1.64 eV, give a 0.14 dex lower mean solar abundance compared to that from the six E exc > 3.7 eV lines, when applying experimental gf-values of Kock and Richter. Without the two strong resonance transitions, the solar mean NLTE abundance from 10 lines of Cu I is log ε ☉ (Cu) = 4.19 ± 0.10, which is consistent within the error bars with the meteoritic value 4.25 ± 0.05 of Lodders et al. The discrepancy between E exc = 1.39-1.64 eV and E exc > 3.7 eV lines can be removed when the calculated gf-values are adopted and a mean solar abundance of log ε ☉ (Cu) = 4.24 ± 0.08 is derived.

Lectures on statistical mechanics

CERN Document Server

Bowler, M G

1982-01-01

Anyone dissatisfied with the almost ritual dullness of many 'standard' texts in statistical mechanics will be grateful for the lucid explanation and generally reassuring tone. Aimed at securing firm foundations for equilibrium statistical mechanics, topics of great subtlety are presented transparently and enthusiastically. Very little mathematical preparation is required beyond elementary calculus and prerequisites in physics are limited to some elementary classical thermodynamics. Suitable as a basis for a first course in statistical mechanics, the book is an ideal supplement to more convent

Study of energy fluctuation effect on the statistical mechanics of equilibrium systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lysogorskiy, Yu V; Wang, Q A; Tayurskii, D A

2012-01-01

This work is devoted to the modeling of energy fluctuation effect on the behavior of small classical thermodynamic systems. It is known that when an equilibrium system gets smaller and smaller, one of the major quantities that becomes more and more uncertain is its internal energy. These increasing fluctuations can considerably modify the original statistics. The present model considers the effect of such energy fluctuations and is based on an overlapping between the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics and the statistics of the fluctuation. Within this o verlap statistics , we studied the effects of several types of energy fluctuations on the probability distribution, internal energy and heat capacity. It was shown that the fluctuations can considerably change the temperature dependence of internal energy and heat capacity in the low energy range and at low temperatures. Particularly, it was found that, due to the lower energy limit of the systems, the fluctuations reduce the probability for the low energy states close to the lowest energy and increase the total average energy. This energy increasing is larger for lower temperatures, making negative heat capacity possible for this case.

Beyond the second law entropy production and non-equilibrium systems

CERN Document Server

Lineweaver, Charles; Niven, Robert; Regenauer-Lieb, Klaus

2014-01-01

The Second Law, a cornerstone of thermodynamics, governs the average direction of dissipative, non-equilibrium processes. But it says nothing about their actual rates or the probability of fluctuations about the average. This interdisciplinary book, written and peer-reviewed by international experts, presents recent advances in the search for new non-equilibrium principles beyond the Second Law, and their applications to a wide range of systems across physics, chemistry and biology. Beyond The Second Law brings together traditionally isolated areas of non-equilibrium research and highlights potentially fruitful connections between them, with entropy production playing the unifying role. Key theoretical concepts include the Maximum Entropy Production principle, the Fluctuation Theorem, and the Maximum Entropy method of statistical inference. Applications of these principles are illustrated in such diverse fields as climatology, cosmology, crystal growth morphology, Earth system science, environmental physics, ...

Statistics for Physical Sciences An Introduction

CERN Document Server

Martin, Brian

2012-01-01

Statistical Methods for the Physical Sciences is an informal, relatively short, but systematic, guide to the more commonly used ideas and techniques in statistical analysis, as used in physical sciences, together with explanations of their origins. It steers a path between the extremes of a recipe of methods with a collection of useful formulas, and a full mathematical account of statistics, while at the same time developing the subject in a logical way. The book can be read in its entirety by anyone with a basic exposure to mathematics at the level of a first-year undergraduate student

Introduction to mathematical statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Minlos, R A

1999-01-01

This book presents a mathematically rigorous approach to the main ideas and phenomena of statistical physics. The introduction addresses the physical motivation, focussing on the basic concept of modern statistical physics, that is the notion of Gibbsian random fields. Properties of Gibbsian fields are analyzed in two ranges of physical parameters: "regular" (corresponding to high-temperature and low-density regimes) where no phase transition is exhibited, and "singular" (low temperature regimes) where such transitions occur. Next, a detailed approach to the analysis of the phenomena of phase transitions of the first kind, the Pirogov-Sinai theory, is presented. The author discusses this theory in a general way and illustrates it with the example of a lattice gas with three types of particles. The conclusion gives a brief review of recent developments arising from this theory. The volume is written for the beginner, yet advanced students will benefit from it as well. The book will serve nicely as a supplement...

A simple non-equilibrium, statistical-physics toy model of thin-film growth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ochab, Jeremi K; Nagel, Hannes; Janke, Wolfhard; Waclaw, Bartlomiej

2015-01-01

We present a simple non-equilibrium model of mass condensation with Lennard–Jones interactions between particles and the substrate. We show that when some number of particles is deposited onto the surface and the system is left to equilibrate, particles condense into an island if the density of particles becomes higher than some critical density. We illustrate this with numerically obtained phase diagrams for three-dimensional systems. We also solve a two-dimensional counterpart of this model analytically and show that not only the phase diagram but also the shape of the cross-sections of three-dimensional condensates qualitatively matches the two-dimensional predictions. Lastly, we show that when particles are being deposited with a constant rate, the system has two phases: a single condensate for low deposition rates, and multiple condensates for fast deposition. The behaviour of our model is thus similar to that of thin film growth processes, and in particular to Stranski–Krastanov growth. (paper)

Nuclear Statistical Equilibrium for compact stars: modelling the nuclear energy functional

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aymard, Francois

2015-01-01

The core collapse supernova is one of the most powerful known phenomena in the universe. It results from the explosion of very massive stars after they have burnt all their fuel. The hot compact remnant, the so-called proto-neutron star, cools down to become an inert catalyzed neutron star. The dynamics and structure of compact stars, that is core collapse supernovae, proto-neutron stars and neutron stars, are still not fully understood and are currently under active research, in association with astrophysical observations and nuclear experiments. One of the key components for modelling compact stars concerns the Equation of State. The task of computing a complete realistic consistent Equation of State for all such stars is challenging because a wide range of densities, proton fractions and temperatures is spanned. This thesis deals with the microscopic modelling of the structure and internal composition of baryonic matter with nucleonic degrees of freedom in compact stars, in order to obtain a realistic unified Equation of State. In particular, we are interested in a formalism which can be applied both at sub-saturation and super-saturation densities, and which gives in the zero temperature limit results compatible with the microscopic Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory with modern realistic effective interactions constrained on experimental nuclear data. For this purpose, we present, for sub-saturated matter, a Nuclear Statistical Equilibrium model which corresponds to a statistical superposition of finite configurations, the so-called Wigner-Seitz cells. Each cell contains a nucleus, or cluster, embedded in a homogeneous electron gas as well as a homogeneous neutron and proton gas. Within each cell, we investigate the different components of the nuclear energy of clusters in interaction with gases. The use of the nuclear mean-field theory for the description of both the clusters and the nucleon gas allows a theoretical consistency with the treatment at saturation

Modelling Thomson scattering for systems with non-equilibrium electron distributions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chapman D.A.

2013-11-01

Full Text Available We investigate the effect of non-equilibrium electron distributions in the analysis of Thomson scattering for a range of conditions of interest to inertial confinement fusion experiments. Firstly, a generalised one-component model based on quantum statistical theory is given in the random phase approximation (RPA. The Chihara expression for electron-ion plasmas is then adapted to include the new non-equilibrium electron physics. The theoretical scattering spectra for both diffuse and dense plasmas in which non-equilibrium electron distributions are expected to arise are considered. We find that such distributions strongly influence the spectra and are hence an important consideration for accurately determining the plasma conditions.

Statistics a guide to the use of statistical methods in the physical sciences

CERN Document Server

Barlow, Roger J

1989-01-01

The Manchester Physics Series General Editors: D. J. Sandiford; F. Mandl; A. C. Phillips Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester Properties of Matter B. H. Flowers and E. Mendoza Optics Second Edition F. G. Smith and J. H. Thomson Statistical Physics Second Edition F. Mandl Electromagnetism Second Edition I. S. Grant and W. R. Phillips Statistics R. J. Barlow Solid State Physics Second Edition J. R. Hook and H. E. Hall Quantum Mechanics F. Mandl Particle Physics Second Edition B. R. Martin and G. Shaw The Physics of Stars Second Edition A.C. Phillips Computing for Scienti

Statistical and physical evolution of QSO's

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caditz, D.; Petrosian, V.

1989-09-01

The relationship between the physical evolution of discrete extragalactic sources, the statistical evolution of the observed population of sources, and the cosmological model is discussed. Three simple forms of statistical evolution: pure luminosity evolution (PLE), pure density evolution (PDE), and generalized luminosity evolution (GLE), are considered in detail together with what these forms imply about the physical evolution of individual sources. Two methods are used to analyze the statistical evolution of the observed distribution of QSO's (quasars) from combined flux limited samples. It is shown that both PLE and PDE are inconsistent with the data over the redshift range 0 less than z less than 2.2, and that a more complicated form of evolution such as GLE is required, independent of the cosmological model. This result is important for physical models of AGN, and in particular, for the accretion disk model which recent results show may be inconsistent with PLE

Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics in Multiphase Flows

CERN Document Server

Mauri, Roberto

2013-01-01

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a general framework that allows the macroscopic description of irreversible processes. This book introduces non-equilibrium thermodynamics and its applications to the rheology of multiphase flows. The subject is relevant to graduate students in chemical and mechanical engineering, physics and material science. This book is divided into two parts. The first part presents the theory of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, reviewing its essential features and showing, when possible, some applications. The second part of this book deals with how the general theory can be applied to model multiphase flows and, in particular, how to determine their constitutive relations. Each chapter contains problems at the end, the solutions of which are given at the end of the book. No prior knowledge of statistical mechanics is required; the necessary prerequisites are elements of transport phenomena and on thermodynamics. “The style of the book is mathematical, but nonetheless it remains very re...

Concept of probability in statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Guttmann, Y M

1999-01-01

Foundational issues in statistical mechanics and the more general question of how probability is to be understood in the context of physical theories are both areas that have been neglected by philosophers of physics. This book fills an important gap in the literature by providing a most systematic study of how to interpret probabilistic assertions in the context of statistical mechanics. The book explores both subjectivist and objectivist accounts of probability, and takes full measure of work in the foundations of probability theory, in statistical mechanics, and in mathematical theory. It will be of particular interest to philosophers of science, physicists and mathematicians interested in foundational issues, and also to historians of science.

Symmetry, Invariance and Ontology in Physics and Statistics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julio Michael Stern

2011-09-01

Full Text Available This paper has three main objectives: (a Discuss the formal analogy between some important symmetry-invariance arguments used in physics, probability and statistics. Specifically, we will focus on Noether’s theorem in physics, the maximum entropy principle in probability theory, and de Finetti-type theorems in Bayesian statistics; (b Discuss the epistemological and ontological implications of these theorems, as they are interpreted in physics and statistics. Specifically, we will focus on the positivist (in physics or subjective (in statistics interpretations vs. objective interpretations that are suggested by symmetry and invariance arguments; (c Introduce the cognitive constructivism epistemological framework as a solution that overcomes the realism-subjectivism dilemma and its pitfalls. The work of the physicist and philosopher Max Born will be particularly important in our discussion.

Local equilibrium in bird flocks

Science.gov (United States)

Mora, Thierry; Walczak, Aleksandra M.; Del Castello, Lorenzo; Ginelli, Francesco; Melillo, Stefania; Parisi, Leonardo; Viale, Massimiliano; Cavagna, Andrea; Giardina, Irene

2016-12-01

The correlated motion of flocks is an example of global order emerging from local interactions. An essential difference with respect to analogous ferromagnetic systems is that flocks are active: animals move relative to each other, dynamically rearranging their interaction network. This non-equilibrium characteristic has been studied theoretically, but its impact on actual animal groups remains to be fully explored experimentally. Here, we introduce a novel dynamical inference technique, based on the principle of maximum entropy, which accommodates network rearrangements and overcomes the problem of slow experimental sampling rates. We use this method to infer the strength and range of alignment forces from data of starling flocks. We find that local bird alignment occurs on a much faster timescale than neighbour rearrangement. Accordingly, equilibrium inference, which assumes a fixed interaction network, gives results consistent with dynamical inference. We conclude that bird orientations are in a state of local quasi-equilibrium over the interaction length scale, providing firm ground for the applicability of statistical physics in certain active systems.

A general theory of non-equilibrium dynamics of lipid-protein fluid membranes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lomholt, Michael Andersen; Hansen, Per Lyngs; Miao, L.

2005-01-01

We present a general and systematic theory of non-equilibrium dynamics of multi-component fluid membranes, in general, and membranes containing transmembrane proteins, in particular. Developed based on a minimal number of principles of statistical physics and designed to be a meso...

Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics ensemble method

CERN Document Server

Eu, Byung Chan

1998-01-01

In this monograph, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics is developed by means of ensemble methods on the basis of the Boltzmann equation, the generic Boltzmann equations for classical and quantum dilute gases, and a generalised Boltzmann equation for dense simple fluids The theories are developed in forms parallel with the equilibrium Gibbs ensemble theory in a way fully consistent with the laws of thermodynamics The generalised hydrodynamics equations are the integral part of the theory and describe the evolution of macroscopic processes in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics of systems far removed from equilibrium Audience This book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, gas dynamics, fluid dynamics, rheology, irreversible thermodynamics and nonequilibrium phenomena

Statistical and particle physics: Common problems and techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bowler, K.C.; Mc Kane, A.J.

1984-01-01

These proceedings contain statistical mechanical studies in condensed matter physics; interfacial problems in statistical physics; string theory; general monte carlo methods and their application to Lattice gauge theories; topological excitations in field theory; phase transformation kinetics; and studies of chaotic systems

Statistical Thermodynamics of Disperse Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shapiro, Alexander

1996-01-01

Principles of statistical physics are applied for the description of thermodynamic equilibrium in disperse systems. The cells of disperse systems are shown to possess a number of non-standard thermodynamic parameters. A random distribution of these parameters in the system is determined....... On the basis of this distribution, it is established that the disperse system has an additional degree of freedom called the macro-entropy. A large set of bounded ideal disperse systems allows exact evaluation of thermodynamic characteristics. The theory developed is applied to the description of equilibrium...

A statistical investigation of the effects of edge localized modes on the equilibrium reconstruction in JET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murari, A; Peluso, E; Gaudio, P; Gelfusa, M; Maviglia, F; Hawkes, N

2012-01-01

The configuration of magnetic fields is an essential ingredient of tokamak physics. In modern day devices, the magnetic topology is normally derived from equilibrium codes, which solve the Grad–Shafranov equation with constraints imposed by the available measurements. On JET, the main code used for this purpose is EFIT and the more commonly used diagnostics are external pick-up coils. Both the code and the measurements present worse performance during edge localized modes (ELMs). To quantify this aspect, various statistical indicators, based on the values of the residuals and their probability distribution, are defined and calculated. They all show that the quality of EFIT reconstructions is clearly better in the absence of ELMs. To investigate the possible causes of the detrimental effects of ELMs on the reconstruction, the pick-up coils are characterized individually and both the spatial distribution and time behaviour of their residuals are analysed in detail. The coils with a faster time response are the ones reproduced less well by EFIT. The constraints of current and pressure at the separatrix are also varied but the effects of such modifications do not result in decisive improvements in the quality of the reconstructions. The interpretation of this experimental evidence is not absolutely compelling but strongly indicative of deficiencies in the physics model on which the JET reconstruction code is based. (paper)

Local equilibrium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anon.

1984-12-15

From 3-6 September the First International Workshop on Local Equilibrium in Strong Interaction Physics took place in Bad-Honnef at the Physics Centre of the German Physical Society. A number of talks covered the experimental and theoretical investigation of the 'hotspots' effect, both in high energy particle physics and in intermediate energy nuclear physics.

Statistical mechanics and the foundations of thermodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin-Loef, A.

1979-01-01

These lectures are designed as an introduction to classical statistical mechanics and its relation to thermodynamics. They are intended to bridge the gap between the treatment of the subject in physics text books and the modern presentations of mathematically rigorous results. We shall first introduce the probability distributions, ensembles, appropriate for describing systems in equilibrium and consider some of their basic physical applications. We also discuss the problem of approach to equilibrium and how irreversibility comes into the dynamics. We then give a detailed description of how the law of large numbers for macrovariables in equilibrium is derived from the fact that entropy is an extensive quantity in the thermodynamic limit. We show in a natural way how to split the energy changes in an thermodynamical process into work and heat leading to a derivation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics from the rules of thermodynamical equilibrium. We have elaborated this part in detail because we feel it is quite satisfactory, that the establishment of the limit of thermodynamic functions as achieved in the modern development of the mathematical aspects of statistical mechanics allows a more general and logically clearer presentation of the bases of thermodynamics. We close these lectures by presenting the basic facts about fluctuation theory. The treatment aims to be reasonably self-contained both concerning the physics and mathematics needed. No knowledge of quantum mechanics is presupposed. Since we spent a large part on mathematical proofs and give many technical facts these lectures are probably most digestive for the mathematically inclined reader who wants to understand the physics of the subject. (HJ)

Frontier of plasma physics. 'Research network on non-equilibrium and extreme state plasmas'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Itoh, Sanae-I.; Fujisawa, Akihide; Kodama, Ryosuke; Sato, Motoyasu; Tanaka, Kazuo A.; Hatakeyama, Rikizo; Itoh, Kimitaka

2011-01-01

Plasma physics and fusion science have been applied to a wide variety of plasmas such as nuclear fusion plasmas, high-energy-density plasmas, processing plasmas and nanobio- plasmas. They are pioneering science and technology frontiers such as new energy sources and new functional materials. A large project 'research network on non-equilibrium and extreme state plasmas' is being proposed to reassess individual plasma researches from a common view of the non-equilibrium extreme plasma and to promote collaboration among plasma researchers all over the country. In the present review, recent collaborative works related to this project are being introduced. (T.I.)

Statistical mechanics of two-dimensional and geophysical flows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bouchet, Freddy; Venaille, Antoine

2012-01-01

The theoretical study of the self-organization of two-dimensional and geophysical turbulent flows is addressed based on statistical mechanics methods. This review is a self-contained presentation of classical and recent works on this subject; from the statistical mechanics basis of the theory up to applications to Jupiter’s troposphere and ocean vortices and jets. Emphasize has been placed on examples with available analytical treatment in order to favor better understanding of the physics and dynamics. After a brief presentation of the 2D Euler and quasi-geostrophic equations, the specificity of two-dimensional and geophysical turbulence is emphasized. The equilibrium microcanonical measure is built from the Liouville theorem. Important statistical mechanics concepts (large deviations and mean field approach) and thermodynamic concepts (ensemble inequivalence and negative heat capacity) are briefly explained and described. On this theoretical basis, we predict the output of the long time evolution of complex turbulent flows as statistical equilibria. This is applied to make quantitative models of two-dimensional turbulence, the Great Red Spot and other Jovian vortices, ocean jets like the Gulf-Stream, and ocean vortices. A detailed comparison between these statistical equilibria and real flow observations is provided. We also present recent results for non-equilibrium situations, for the studies of either the relaxation towards equilibrium or non-equilibrium steady states. In this last case, forces and dissipation are in a statistical balance; fluxes of conserved quantity characterize the system and microcanonical or other equilibrium measures no longer describe the system.

Semiconductor statistics

CERN Document Server

Blakemore, J S

1962-01-01

Semiconductor Statistics presents statistics aimed at complementing existing books on the relationships between carrier densities and transport effects. The book is divided into two parts. Part I provides introductory material on the electron theory of solids, and then discusses carrier statistics for semiconductors in thermal equilibrium. Of course a solid cannot be in true thermodynamic equilibrium if any electrical current is passed; but when currents are reasonably small the distribution function is but little perturbed, and the carrier distribution for such a """"quasi-equilibrium"""" co

Vol. 3: Statistical Physics and Phase Transitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sitenko, A.

1993-01-01

Problems of modern physics and the situation with physical research in Ukraine are considered. Programme of the conference includes scientific and general problems. Its proceedings are published in 6 volumes. The papers presented in this volume refer to statistical physics and phase transition theory

The universal statistical distributions of the affinity, equilibrium constants, kinetics and specificity in biomolecular recognition.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiliang Zheng

2015-04-01

Full Text Available We uncovered the universal statistical laws for the biomolecular recognition/binding process. We quantified the statistical energy landscapes for binding, from which we can characterize the distributions of the binding free energy (affinity, the equilibrium constants, the kinetics and the specificity by exploring the different ligands binding with a particular receptor. The results of the analytical studies are confirmed by the microscopic flexible docking simulations. The distribution of binding affinity is Gaussian around the mean and becomes exponential near the tail. The equilibrium constants of the binding follow a log-normal distribution around the mean and a power law distribution in the tail. The intrinsic specificity for biomolecular recognition measures the degree of discrimination of native versus non-native binding and the optimization of which becomes the maximization of the ratio of the free energy gap between the native state and the average of non-native states versus the roughness measured by the variance of the free energy landscape around its mean. The intrinsic specificity obeys a Gaussian distribution near the mean and an exponential distribution near the tail. Furthermore, the kinetics of binding follows a log-normal distribution near the mean and a power law distribution at the tail. Our study provides new insights into the statistical nature of thermodynamics, kinetics and function from different ligands binding with a specific receptor or equivalently specific ligand binding with different receptors. The elucidation of distributions of the kinetics and free energy has guiding roles in studying biomolecular recognition and function through small-molecule evolution and chemical genetics.

Non-equilibrium dog-flea model

Science.gov (United States)

Ackerson, Bruce J.

2017-11-01

We develop the open dog-flea model to serve as a check of proposed non-equilibrium theories of statistical mechanics. The model is developed in detail. Then it is applied to four recent models for non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Comparison of the dog-flea solution with these different models allows checking claims and giving a concrete example of the theoretical models.

Statistical physics including applications to condensed matter

CERN Document Server

Hermann, Claudine

2005-01-01

Statistical Physics bridges the properties of a macroscopic system and the microscopic behavior of its constituting particles, otherwise impossible due to the giant magnitude of Avogadro's number. Numerous systems of today's key technologies -- as e.g. semiconductors or lasers -- are macroscopic quantum objects; only statistical physics allows for understanding their fundamentals. Therefore, this graduate text also focuses on particular applications such as the properties of electrons in solids with applications, and radiation thermodynamics and the greenhouse effect.

Safety bey statistics? A critical view on statistical methods applied in health physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kraut, W.

2016-01-01

The only proper way to describe uncertainties in health physics is by statistical means. But statistics never can replace Your personal evaluation of effect, nor can statistics transmute randomness into certainty like an ''uncertainty laundry''. The paper discusses these problems in routine practical work.

Statistical analysis of the equilibrium configurations of the W7-X stellarator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sengupta, A [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, Euratom Association, Greifswald (Germany); Geiger, J [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, Euratom Association, Greifswald (Germany); Mc Carthy, P J [Department of Physics, University College Cork, Association EURATOM-DCU, Cork (Ireland)

2007-05-15

Equilibrium magnetic configurations of W7-X stellarator plasma were analysed in this study. The statistical method of function parametrization was used to recover the physical properties of the magnetic configurations, such as the flux surface geometry, the magnetic field and the iota profile from simulated experimental data. The study was carried out with a net toroidal current. Idealized 'measurements' were first used to recover the configuration. These ' measurements' were then perturbed with noise and the effect of this perturbation on the recovered configuration parameters was estimated. The noise was scanned over a range large enough to encompass that expected in the actual experiment. In the process, it was possible to ascertain the limit of tolerable noise that can be allowed in the inputs so as not to significantly perturb the outputs recovered with noiseless 'measurements'. Generally, a cubic polynomial model was found to be necessary for noise levels below 10%. For higher noise levels, a quadratic polynomial performed as well as the cubic. The noise level of 10% was also the approximate limit up to which the recovery with ideal measurements was generally reproduced. For the flux geometry recovery, however, the quadratic model performed similarly to the cubic for any value of noise, with the latter model proving to be significantly better only for the noiseless case. Also, with noisy predictors the recovery error for the flux surfaces increases linearly with effective radius from the plasma core up to the edge.

Ordered phase and non-equilibrium fluctuation in stock market

Science.gov (United States)

Maskawa, Jun-ichi

2002-08-01

We analyze the statistics of daily price change of stock market in the framework of a statistical physics model for the collective fluctuation of stock portfolio. In this model the time series of price changes are coded into the sequences of up and down spins, and the Hamiltonian of the system is expressed by spin-spin interactions as in spin glass models of disordered magnetic systems. Through the analysis of Dow-Jones industrial portfolio consisting of 30 stock issues by this model, we find a non-equilibrium fluctuation mode on the point slightly below the boundary between ordered and disordered phases. The remaining 29 modes are still in disordered phase and well described by Gibbs distribution. The variance of the fluctuation is outlined by the theoretical curve and peculiarly large in the non-equilibrium mode compared with those in the other modes remaining in ordinary phase.

Thermodynamic chemical energy transfer mechanisms of non-equilibrium, quasi-equilibrium, and equilibrium chemical reactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roh, Heui-Seol

2015-01-01

Chemical energy transfer mechanisms at finite temperature are explored by a chemical energy transfer theory which is capable of investigating various chemical mechanisms of non-equilibrium, quasi-equilibrium, and equilibrium. Gibbs energy fluxes are obtained as a function of chemical potential, time, and displacement. Diffusion, convection, internal convection, and internal equilibrium chemical energy fluxes are demonstrated. The theory reveals that there are chemical energy flux gaps and broken discrete symmetries at the activation chemical potential, time, and displacement. The statistical, thermodynamic theory is the unification of diffusion and internal convection chemical reactions which reduces to the non-equilibrium generalization beyond the quasi-equilibrium theories of migration and diffusion processes. The relationship between kinetic theories of chemical and electrochemical reactions is also explored. The theory is applied to explore non-equilibrium chemical reactions as an illustration. Three variable separation constants indicate particle number constants and play key roles in describing the distinct chemical reaction mechanisms. The kinetics of chemical energy transfer accounts for the four control mechanisms of chemical reactions such as activation, concentration, transition, and film chemical reactions. - Highlights: • Chemical energy transfer theory is proposed for non-, quasi-, and equilibrium. • Gibbs energy fluxes are expressed by chemical potential, time, and displacement. • Relationship between chemical and electrochemical reactions is discussed. • Theory is applied to explore nonequilibrium energy transfer in chemical reactions. • Kinetics of non-equilibrium chemical reactions shows the four control mechanisms

Heuristic versus statistical physics approach to optimization problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jedrzejek, C.; Cieplinski, L.

1995-01-01

Optimization is a crucial ingredient of many calculation schemes in science and engineering. In this paper we assess several classes of methods: heuristic algorithms, methods directly relying on statistical physics such as the mean-field method and simulated annealing; and Hopfield-type neural networks and genetic algorithms partly related to statistical physics. We perform the analysis for three types of problems: (1) the Travelling Salesman Problem, (2) vector quantization, and (3) traffic control problem in multistage interconnection network. In general, heuristic algorithms perform better (except for genetic algorithms) and much faster but have to be specific for every problem. The key to improving the performance could be to include heuristic features into general purpose statistical physics methods. (author)

Statistical physics and condensed matter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2003-07-01

This document is divided into 4 sections: 1) General aspects of statistical physics. The themes include: possible geometrical structures of thermodynamics, the thermodynamical foundation of quantum measurement, transport phenomena (kinetic theory, hydrodynamics and turbulence) and out of equilibrium systems (stochastic dynamics and turbulence). The techniques involved here are typical of applied analysis: stability criteria, mode decomposition, shocks and stochastic equations. 2) Disordered, glassy and granular systems: statics and dynamics. The complexity of the systems can be studied through the structure of their phase space. The geometry of this phase space is studied in several works: the overlap distribution can now be computed with a very high precision; the boundary energy between low lying states does not behave like in ordinary systems; and the Edward's hypothesis of equi-probability of low lying metastable states is invalidated. The phenomenon of aging, characteristic of glassy dynamics, is studied in several models. Dynamics of biological systems or of fracture is shown to bear some resemblance with that of disordered systems. 3) Quantum systems. The themes include: mesoscopic superconductors, supersymmetric approach to strongly correlated electrons, quantum criticality and heavy fermion compounds, optical sum rule violation in the cuprates, heat capacity of lattice spin models from high-temperature series expansion, Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem in dimension larger than one, quantum Hall effect, Bose-Einstein condensation and multiple-spin exchange model on the triangular lattice. 4) Soft condensed matter and biological systems. Path integral representations are invaluable to describe polymers, proteins and self-avoiding membranes. Using these methods, problems as diverse as the titration of a weak poly-acid by a strong base, the denaturation transition of DNA or bridge-hopping in conducting polymers have been addressed. The problems of RNA folding

Statistical physics and condensed matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

This document is divided into 4 sections: 1) General aspects of statistical physics. The themes include: possible geometrical structures of thermodynamics, the thermodynamical foundation of quantum measurement, transport phenomena (kinetic theory, hydrodynamics and turbulence) and out of equilibrium systems (stochastic dynamics and turbulence). The techniques involved here are typical of applied analysis: stability criteria, mode decomposition, shocks and stochastic equations. 2) Disordered, glassy and granular systems: statics and dynamics. The complexity of the systems can be studied through the structure of their phase space. The geometry of this phase space is studied in several works: the overlap distribution can now be computed with a very high precision; the boundary energy between low lying states does not behave like in ordinary systems; and the Edward's hypothesis of equi-probability of low lying metastable states is invalidated. The phenomenon of aging, characteristic of glassy dynamics, is studied in several models. Dynamics of biological systems or of fracture is shown to bear some resemblance with that of disordered systems. 3) Quantum systems. The themes include: mesoscopic superconductors, supersymmetric approach to strongly correlated electrons, quantum criticality and heavy fermion compounds, optical sum rule violation in the cuprates, heat capacity of lattice spin models from high-temperature series expansion, Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem in dimension larger than one, quantum Hall effect, Bose-Einstein condensation and multiple-spin exchange model on the triangular lattice. 4) Soft condensed matter and biological systems. Path integral representations are invaluable to describe polymers, proteins and self-avoiding membranes. Using these methods, problems as diverse as the titration of a weak poly-acid by a strong base, the denaturation transition of DNA or bridge-hopping in conducting polymers have been addressed. The problems of RNA folding has

On the establishment of thermal equilibrium in simplest mechanical systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kotsinyan, Ar.M.

1987-01-01

The process of the establishment of thermal equilibrium of the damping oscillators and a ''free'' particle in interaction with the blackbody radiation field is considered. A special attention is payed to the principal role of non-closedness of real systems as well as to the irreversibility of the microscopic equations of motion in the question of grounding of the statistical physics

Toward a Multi-scale Phase Transition Kinetics Methodology: From Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics to Hydrodynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Belof, Jonathan; Orlikowski, Daniel; Wu, Christine; McLaughlin, Keith

2013-06-01

Shock and ramp compression experiments are allowing us to probe condensed matter under extreme conditions where phase transitions and other non-equilibrium aspects can now be directly observed, but first principles simulation of kinetics remains a challenge. A multi-scale approach is presented here, with non-equilibrium statistical mechanical quantities calculated by molecular dynamics (MD) and then leveraged to inform a classical nucleation and growth kinetics model at the hydrodynamic scale. Of central interest is the free energy barrier for the formation of a critical nucleus, with direct NEMD presenting the challenge of relatively long timescales necessary to resolve nucleation. Rather than attempt to resolve the time-dependent nucleation sequence directly, the methodology derived here is built upon the non-equilibrium work theorem in order to bias the formation of a critical nucleus and thus construct the nucleation and growth rates. Having determined these kinetic terms from MD, a hydrodynamics implementation of Kolmogorov-Johnson-Mehl-Avrami (KJMA) kinetics and metastabilty is applied to the dynamic compressive freezing of water and compared with recent ramp compression experiments [Dolan et al., Nature (2007)] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Statistical physics of medical ultrasonic images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wagner, R.F.; Insana, M.F.; Brown, D.G.; Smith, S.W.

1987-01-01

The physical and statistical properties of backscattered signals in medical ultrasonic imaging are reviewed in terms of: 1) the radiofrequency signal; 2) the envelope (video or magnitude) signal; and 3) the density of samples in simple and in compounded images. There is a wealth of physical information in backscattered signals in medical ultrasound. This information is contained in the radiofrequency spectrum - which is not typically displayed to the viewer - as well as in the higher statistical moments of the envelope or video signal - which are not readily accessed by the human viewer of typical B-scans. This information may be extracted from the detected backscattered signals by straightforward signal processing techniques at low resolution

Science Academies' Refresher Course in Statistical Physics

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

The Course is aimed at college teachers of statistical physics at BSc/MSc level. ... teachers, with at least a masters degree in Physics/Mathematics/Engineering are ... Topics: There will be six courses dealing with, Basic principles and general ...

The equilibrium theory of inhomogeneous polymers (international series of monographs on physics)

CERN Document Server

Fredrickson, Glenn

2013-01-01

The Equilibrium Theory of Inhomogeneous Polymers provides an introduction to the field-theoretic methods and computer simulation techniques that are used in the design of structured polymeric fluids. By such methods, the principles that dictate equilibrium self-assembly in systems ranging from block and graft copolymers, to polyelectrolytes, liquid crystalline polymers, and polymer nanocomposites can be established. Building on an introductory discussion of single-polymer statistical mechanics, the book provides a detailed treatment of analytical and numerical techniques for addressing the conformational properties of polymers subjected to spatially-varying potential fields. This problem is shown to be central to the field-theoretic description of interacting polymeric fluids, and models for a number of important polymer systems are elaborated. Chapter 5 serves to unify and expound the topic of self-consistent field theory, which is a collection of analytical and numerical techniques for obtaining solutions o...

Introduction to quantum statistical mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bogolyubov, N.N.; Bogolyubov, N.N.

1980-01-01

In a set of lectures, which has been delivered at the Physical Department of Moscow State University as a special course for students represented are some basic ideas of quantum statistical mechanics. Considered are in particular, the Liouville equations in classical and quantum mechanics, canonical distribution and thermodynamical functions, two-time correlation functions and Green's functions in the theory of thermal equilibrium

Statistical methods in physical mapping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, D.O.

1995-05-01

One of the great success stories of modern molecular genetics has been the ability of biologists to isolate and characterize the genes responsible for serious inherited diseases like fragile X syndrome, cystic fibrosis and myotonic muscular dystrophy. This dissertation concentrates on constructing high-resolution physical maps. It demonstrates how probabilistic modeling and statistical analysis can aid molecular geneticists in the tasks of planning, execution, and evaluation of physical maps of chromosomes and large chromosomal regions. The dissertation is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the field of physical mapping, describing the role of physical mapping in gene isolation and ill past efforts at mapping chromosomal regions. The next two chapters review and extend known results on predicting progress in large mapping projects. Such predictions help project planners decide between various approaches and tactics for mapping large regions of the human genome. Chapter 2 shows how probability models have been used in the past to predict progress in mapping projects. Chapter 3 presents new results, based on stationary point process theory, for progress measures for mapping projects based on directed mapping strategies. Chapter 4 describes in detail the construction of all initial high-resolution physical map for human chromosome 19. This chapter introduces the probability and statistical models involved in map construction in the context of a large, ongoing physical mapping project. Chapter 5 concentrates on one such model, the trinomial model. This chapter contains new results on the large-sample behavior of this model, including distributional results, asymptotic moments, and detection error rates. In addition, it contains an optimality result concerning experimental procedures based on the trinomial model. The last chapter explores unsolved problems and describes future work

Statistical methods in physical mapping

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nelson, David O. [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

1995-05-01

One of the great success stories of modern molecular genetics has been the ability of biologists to isolate and characterize the genes responsible for serious inherited diseases like fragile X syndrome, cystic fibrosis and myotonic muscular dystrophy. This dissertation concentrates on constructing high-resolution physical maps. It demonstrates how probabilistic modeling and statistical analysis can aid molecular geneticists in the tasks of planning, execution, and evaluation of physical maps of chromosomes and large chromosomal regions. The dissertation is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the field of physical mapping, describing the role of physical mapping in gene isolation and ill past efforts at mapping chromosomal regions. The next two chapters review and extend known results on predicting progress in large mapping projects. Such predictions help project planners decide between various approaches and tactics for mapping large regions of the human genome. Chapter 2 shows how probability models have been used in the past to predict progress in mapping projects. Chapter 3 presents new results, based on stationary point process theory, for progress measures for mapping projects based on directed mapping strategies. Chapter 4 describes in detail the construction of all initial high-resolution physical map for human chromosome 19. This chapter introduces the probability and statistical models involved in map construction in the context of a large, ongoing physical mapping project. Chapter 5 concentrates on one such model, the trinomial model. This chapter contains new results on the large-sample behavior of this model, including distributional results, asymptotic moments, and detection error rates. In addition, it contains an optimality result concerning experimental procedures based on the trinomial model. The last chapter explores unsolved problems and describes future work.

Statistical physics of vaccination

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhen; Bauch, Chris T.; Bhattacharyya, Samit; d'Onofrio, Alberto; Manfredi, Piero; Perc, Matjaž; Perra, Nicola; Salathé, Marcel; Zhao, Dawei

2016-12-01

Historically, infectious diseases caused considerable damage to human societies, and they continue to do so today. To help reduce their impact, mathematical models of disease transmission have been studied to help understand disease dynamics and inform prevention strategies. Vaccination-one of the most important preventive measures of modern times-is of great interest both theoretically and empirically. And in contrast to traditional approaches, recent research increasingly explores the pivotal implications of individual behavior and heterogeneous contact patterns in populations. Our report reviews the developmental arc of theoretical epidemiology with emphasis on vaccination, as it led from classical models assuming homogeneously mixing (mean-field) populations and ignoring human behavior, to recent models that account for behavioral feedback and/or population spatial/social structure. Many of the methods used originated in statistical physics, such as lattice and network models, and their associated analytical frameworks. Similarly, the feedback loop between vaccinating behavior and disease propagation forms a coupled nonlinear system with analogs in physics. We also review the new paradigm of digital epidemiology, wherein sources of digital data such as online social media are mined for high-resolution information on epidemiologically relevant individual behavior. Armed with the tools and concepts of statistical physics, and further assisted by new sources of digital data, models that capture nonlinear interactions between behavior and disease dynamics offer a novel way of modeling real-world phenomena, and can help improve health outcomes. We conclude the review by discussing open problems in the field and promising directions for future research.

Statistical equilibrium calculations for silicon in early-type model stellar atmospheres

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamp, L.W.

1976-02-01

Line profiles of 36 multiplets of silicon (Si) II, III, and IV were computed for a grid of model atmospheres covering the range from 15,000 to 35,000 K in effective temperature and 2.5 to 4.5 in log (gravity). The computations involved simultaneous solution of the steady-state statistical equilibrium equations for the populations and of the equation of radiative transfer in the lines. The variables were linearized, and successive corrections were computed until a minimal accuracy of 1/1000 in the line intensities was reached. The common assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) was dropped. The model atmospheres used also were computed by non-LTE methods. Some effects that were incorporated into the calculations were the depression of the continuum by free electrons, hydrogen and ionized helium line blocking, and auto-ionization and dielectronic recombination, which later were found to be insignificant. Use of radiation damping and detailed electron (quadratic Stark) damping constants had small but significant effects on the strong resonance lines of Si III and IV. For weak and intermediate-strength lines, large differences with respect to LTE computations, the results of which are also presented, were found in line shapes and strengths. For the strong lines the differences are generally small, except for the models at the hot, low-gravity extreme of the range. These computations should be useful in the interpretation of the spectra of stars in the spectral range B0--B5, luminosity classes III, IV, and V

Networking—a statistical physics perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Yeung, Chi Ho; Saad, David

2013-03-01

Networking encompasses a variety of tasks related to the communication of information on networks; it has a substantial economic and societal impact on a broad range of areas including transportation systems, wired and wireless communications and a range of Internet applications. As transportation and communication networks become increasingly more complex, the ever increasing demand for congestion control, higher traffic capacity, quality of service, robustness and reduced energy consumption requires new tools and methods to meet these conflicting requirements. The new methodology should serve for gaining better understanding of the properties of networking systems at the macroscopic level, as well as for the development of new principled optimization and management algorithms at the microscopic level. Methods of statistical physics seem best placed to provide new approaches as they have been developed specifically to deal with nonlinear large-scale systems. This review aims at presenting an overview of tools and methods that have been developed within the statistical physics community and that can be readily applied to address the emerging problems in networking. These include diffusion processes, methods from disordered systems and polymer physics, probabilistic inference, which have direct relevance to network routing, file and frequency distribution, the exploration of network structures and vulnerability, and various other practical networking applications.

Networking—a statistical physics perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yeung, Chi Ho; Saad, David

2013-01-01

Networking encompasses a variety of tasks related to the communication of information on networks; it has a substantial economic and societal impact on a broad range of areas including transportation systems, wired and wireless communications and a range of Internet applications. As transportation and communication networks become increasingly more complex, the ever increasing demand for congestion control, higher traffic capacity, quality of service, robustness and reduced energy consumption requires new tools and methods to meet these conflicting requirements. The new methodology should serve for gaining better understanding of the properties of networking systems at the macroscopic level, as well as for the development of new principled optimization and management algorithms at the microscopic level. Methods of statistical physics seem best placed to provide new approaches as they have been developed specifically to deal with nonlinear large-scale systems. This review aims at presenting an overview of tools and methods that have been developed within the statistical physics community and that can be readily applied to address the emerging problems in networking. These include diffusion processes, methods from disordered systems and polymer physics, probabilistic inference, which have direct relevance to network routing, file and frequency distribution, the exploration of network structures and vulnerability, and various other practical networking applications. (topical review)

Probability and statistics in particle physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frodesen, A.G.; Skjeggestad, O.

1979-01-01

Probability theory is entered into at an elementary level and given a simple and detailed exposition. The material on statistics has been organised with an eye to the experimental physicist's practical need, which is likely to be statistical methods for estimation or decision-making. The book is intended for graduate students and research workers in experimental high energy and elementary particle physics, and numerous examples from these fields are presented. (JIW)

Statistical physics and thermodynamics an introduction to key concepts

CERN Document Server

Rau, Jochen

2017-01-01

Statistical physics and thermodynamics describe the behaviour of systems on the macroscopic scale. Their methods are applicable to a wide range of phenomena: from refrigerators to the interior of stars, from chemical reactions to magnetism. Indeed, of all physical laws, the laws of thermodynamics are perhaps the most universal. This text provides a concise yet thorough introduction to the key concepts which underlie statistical physics and thermodynamics. It begins with a review of classical probability theory and quantum theory, as well as a careful discussion of the notions of information and entropy, prior to embarking on the development of statistical physics proper. The crucial steps leading from the microscopic to the macroscopic domain are rendered transparent. In particular, the laws of thermodynamics are shown to emerge as natural consequences of the statistical framework. While the emphasis is on clarifying the basic concepts, the text also contains many applications and classroom-tested exercises,...

What can we learn from noise? - Mesoscopic nonequilibrium statistical physics.

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Kensuke

2016-01-01

Mesoscopic systems - small electric circuits working in quantum regime - offer us a unique experimental stage to explorer quantum transport in a tunable and precise way. The purpose of this Review is to show how they can contribute to statistical physics. We introduce the significance of fluctuation, or equivalently noise, as noise measurement enables us to address the fundamental aspects of a physical system. The significance of the fluctuation theorem (FT) in statistical physics is noted. We explain what information can be deduced from the current noise measurement in mesoscopic systems. As an important application of the noise measurement to statistical physics, we describe our experimental work on the current and current noise in an electron interferometer, which is the first experimental test of FT in quantum regime. Our attempt will shed new light in the research field of mesoscopic quantum statistical physics.

The statistical mechanics of financial markets

CERN Document Server

Voit, Johannes

2003-01-01

From the reviews of the first edition - "Provides an excellent introduction for physicists interested in the statistical properties of financial markets. Appropriately early in the book the basic financial terms such as shorts, limit orders, puts, calls, and other terms are clearly defined. Examples, often with graphs, augment the reader’s understanding of what may be a plethora of new terms and ideas… [This is] an excellent starting point for the physicist interested in the subject. Some of the book’s strongest features are its careful definitions, its detailed examples, and the connection it establishes to physical systems." PHYSICS TODAY "This book is excellent at illustrating the similarities of financial markets with other non-equilibrium physical systems. [...] In summary, a very good book that offers more than just qualitative comparisons of physics and finance." (www.quantnotes.com) This highly-praised introductory treatment describes parallels between statistical physics and finance - both thos...

The non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of a simple geophysical fluid dynamics model

Science.gov (United States)

Verkley, Wim; Severijns, Camiel

2014-05-01

Lorenz [1] has devised a dynamical system that has proved to be very useful as a benchmark system in geophysical fluid dynamics. The system in its simplest form consists of a periodic array of variables that can be associated with an atmospheric field on a latitude circle. The system is driven by a constant forcing, is damped by linear friction and has a simple advection term that causes the model to behave chaotically if the forcing is large enough. Our aim is to predict the statistics of Lorenz' model on the basis of a given average value of its total energy - obtained from a numerical integration - and the assumption of statistical stationarity. Our method is the principle of maximum entropy [2] which in this case reads: the information entropy of the system's probability density function shall be maximal under the constraints of normalization, a given value of the average total energy and statistical stationarity. Statistical stationarity is incorporated approximately by using `stationarity constraints', i.e., by requiring that the average first and possibly higher-order time-derivatives of the energy are zero in the maximization of entropy. The analysis [3] reveals that, if the first stationarity constraint is used, the resulting probability density function rather accurately reproduces the statistics of the individual variables. If the second stationarity constraint is used as well, the correlations between the variables are also reproduced quite adequately. The method can be generalized straightforwardly and holds the promise of a viable non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of the forced-dissipative systems of geophysical fluid dynamics. [1] E.N. Lorenz, 1996: Predictability - A problem partly solved, in Proc. Seminar on Predictability (ECMWF, Reading, Berkshire, UK), Vol. 1, pp. 1-18. [2] E.T. Jaynes, 2003: Probability Theory - The Logic of Science (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). [3] W.T.M. Verkley and C.A. Severijns, 2014: The maximum entropy

New Hybrid Monte Carlo methods for efficient sampling. From physics to biology and statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akhmatskaya, Elena; Reich, Sebastian

2011-01-01

We introduce a class of novel hybrid methods for detailed simulations of large complex systems in physics, biology, materials science and statistics. These generalized shadow Hybrid Monte Carlo (GSHMC) methods combine the advantages of stochastic and deterministic simulation techniques. They utilize a partial momentum update to retain some of the dynamical information, employ modified Hamiltonians to overcome exponential performance degradation with the system’s size and make use of multi-scale nature of complex systems. Variants of GSHMCs were developed for atomistic simulation, particle simulation and statistics: GSHMC (thermodynamically consistent implementation of constant-temperature molecular dynamics), MTS-GSHMC (multiple-time-stepping GSHMC), meso-GSHMC (Metropolis corrected dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) method), and a generalized shadow Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, GSHmMC (a GSHMC for statistical simulations). All of these are compatible with other enhanced sampling techniques and suitable for massively parallel computing allowing for a range of multi-level parallel strategies. A brief description of the GSHMC approach, examples of its application on high performance computers and comparison with other existing techniques are given. Our approach is shown to resolve such problems as resonance instabilities of the MTS methods and non-preservation of thermodynamic equilibrium properties in DPD, and to outperform known methods in sampling efficiency by an order of magnitude. (author)

Far from Equilibrium Percolation, Stochastic and Shape Resonances in the Physics of Life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Bianconi

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Key physical concepts, relevant for the cross-fertilization between condensed matter physics and the physics of life seen as a collective phenomenon in a system out-of-equilibrium, are discussed. The onset of life can be driven by: (a the critical fluctuations at the protonic percolation threshold in membrane transport; (b the stochastic resonance in biological systems, a mechanism that can exploit external and self-generated noise in order to gain efficiency in signal processing; and (c the shape resonance (or Fano resonance or Feshbach resonance in the association and dissociation processes of bio-molecules (a quantum mechanism that could play a key role to establish a macroscopic quantum coherence in the cell.

Equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics in supercooled liquids and glasses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mossa, S; Nave, E La; Tartaglia, P; Sciortino, F

2003-01-01

We review the inherent structure thermodynamical formalism and the formulation of an equation of state (EOS) for liquids in equilibrium based on the (volume) derivatives of the statistical properties of the potential energy surface. We also show that, under the hypothesis that during ageing the system explores states associated with equilibrium configurations, it is possible to generalize the proposed EOS to out-of-equilibrium (OOE) conditions. The proposed formulation is based on the introduction of one additional parameter which, in the chosen thermodynamic formalism, can be chosen as the local minimum where the slowly relaxing OOE liquid is trapped

The large deviation approach to statistical mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Touchette, Hugo

2009-01-01

The theory of large deviations is concerned with the exponential decay of probabilities of large fluctuations in random systems. These probabilities are important in many fields of study, including statistics, finance, and engineering, as they often yield valuable information about the large fluctuations of a random system around its most probable state or trajectory. In the context of equilibrium statistical mechanics, the theory of large deviations provides exponential-order estimates of probabilities that refine and generalize Einstein's theory of fluctuations. This review explores this and other connections between large deviation theory and statistical mechanics, in an effort to show that the mathematical language of statistical mechanics is the language of large deviation theory. The first part of the review presents the basics of large deviation theory, and works out many of its classical applications related to sums of random variables and Markov processes. The second part goes through many problems and results of statistical mechanics, and shows how these can be formulated and derived within the context of large deviation theory. The problems and results treated cover a wide range of physical systems, including equilibrium many-particle systems, noise-perturbed dynamics, nonequilibrium systems, as well as multifractals, disordered systems, and chaotic systems. This review also covers many fundamental aspects of statistical mechanics, such as the derivation of variational principles characterizing equilibrium and nonequilibrium states, the breaking of the Legendre transform for nonconcave entropies, and the characterization of nonequilibrium fluctuations through fluctuation relations.

The large deviation approach to statistical mechanics

Science.gov (United States)

Touchette, Hugo

2009-07-01

The theory of large deviations is concerned with the exponential decay of probabilities of large fluctuations in random systems. These probabilities are important in many fields of study, including statistics, finance, and engineering, as they often yield valuable information about the large fluctuations of a random system around its most probable state or trajectory. In the context of equilibrium statistical mechanics, the theory of large deviations provides exponential-order estimates of probabilities that refine and generalize Einstein’s theory of fluctuations. This review explores this and other connections between large deviation theory and statistical mechanics, in an effort to show that the mathematical language of statistical mechanics is the language of large deviation theory. The first part of the review presents the basics of large deviation theory, and works out many of its classical applications related to sums of random variables and Markov processes. The second part goes through many problems and results of statistical mechanics, and shows how these can be formulated and derived within the context of large deviation theory. The problems and results treated cover a wide range of physical systems, including equilibrium many-particle systems, noise-perturbed dynamics, nonequilibrium systems, as well as multifractals, disordered systems, and chaotic systems. This review also covers many fundamental aspects of statistical mechanics, such as the derivation of variational principles characterizing equilibrium and nonequilibrium states, the breaking of the Legendre transform for nonconcave entropies, and the characterization of nonequilibrium fluctuations through fluctuation relations.

On the local equilibrium condition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hessling, H.

1994-11-01

A physical system is in local equilibrium if it cannot be distinguished from a global equilibrium by ''infinitesimally localized measurements''. This should be a natural characterization of local equilibrium, but the problem is to give a precise meaning to the qualitative phrase ''infinitesimally localized measurements''. A solution is suggested in form of a Local Equilibrium Condition (LEC), which can be applied to linear relativistic quantum field theories but not directly to selfinteracting quantum fields. The concept of local temperature resulting from LEC is compared to an old approach to local temperature based on the principle of maximal entropy. It is shown that the principle of maximal entropy does not always lead to physical states if it is applied to relativistic quantum field theories. (orig.)

Spectral-Lagrangian methods for collisional models of non-equilibrium statistical states

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gamba, Irene M.; Tharkabhushanam, Sri Harsha

2009-01-01

We propose a new spectral Lagrangian based deterministic solver for the non-linear Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) in d-dimensions for variable hard sphere (VHS) collision kernels with conservative or non-conservative binary interactions. The method is based on symmetries of the Fourier transform of the collision integral, where the complexity in its computation is reduced to a separate integral over the unit sphere S d-1 . The conservation of moments is enforced by Lagrangian constraints. The resulting scheme, implemented in free space, is very versatile and adjusts in a very simple manner to several cases that involve energy dissipation due to local micro-reversibility (inelastic interactions) or elastic models of slowing down process. Our simulations are benchmarked with available exact self-similar solutions, exact moment equations and analytical estimates for the homogeneous Boltzmann equation, both for elastic and inelastic VHS interactions. Benchmarking of the simulations involves the selection of a time self-similar rescaling of the numerical distribution function which is performed using the continuous spectrum of the equation for Maxwell molecules as studied first in Bobylev et al. [A.V. Bobylev, C. Cercignani, G. Toscani, Proof of an asymptotic property of self-similar solutions of the Boltzmann equation for granular materials, Journal of Statistical Physics 111 (2003) 403-417] and generalized to a wide range of related models in Bobylev et al. [A.V. Bobylev, C. Cercignani, I.M. Gamba, On the self-similar asymptotics for generalized non-linear kinetic Maxwell models, Communication in Mathematical Physics, in press. URL: ( )]. The method also produces accurate results in the case of inelastic diffusive Boltzmann equations for hard spheres (inelastic collisions under thermal bath), where overpopulated non-Gaussian exponential tails have been conjectured in computations by stochastic methods [T.V. Noije, M. Ernst, Velocity distributions in homogeneously

A statistical physics of stationary and metastable states

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cabo, A; González, A; Curilef, S; Cabo-Bizet, N G; Vera, C A

2011-01-01

We present a generalization of Gibbs statistical mechanics designed to describe a general class of stationary and metastable equilibrium states. It is assumed that the physical system maximizes the entropy functional S subject to the standard conditions plus an extra conserved constraint function F, imposed to force the system to remain in the metastable configuration. After requiring additivity for two quasi-independent subsystems, and the commutation of the new constraint with the density matrix ρ, it is argued that F should be a homogeneous function of ρ, at least for systems in which the spectrum is sufficiently dense to be considered as continuous. Therefore, surprisingly, the analytic form of F turns out to be of the kind F(p i ) = p i q , where the p i are the eigenvalues of the density matrix and q is a real number to be determined. Thus, the discussion identifies the physical relevance of Lagrange multiplier constraints of the Tsallis kind and their q parameter, as enforced by the additivity of the constraint F which fixes the metastable state. An approximate analytic solution for the probability density is found for q close to unity. The procedure is applied to describe the results from the plasma experiment of Huang and Driscoll. For small and medium values of the radial distance, the measured density is predicted with a precision similar to that achieved by minimal enstrophy and Tsallis procedures. Also, the particle density is predicted at all the radial positions. Thus, the discussion gives a solution to the conceptual difficulties of the two above mentioned approaches as applied to this problem, which both predict a non-analytic abrupt vanishing of the density above a critical radial distance

Understanding search trees via statistical physics

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

ary search tree model (where stands for the number of branches of the search tree), an important problem for data storage in computer science, using a variety of statistical physics techniques that allow us to obtain exact asymptotic results.

Statistical physics of complex systems a concise introduction

CERN Document Server

Bertin, Eric

2016-01-01

This course-tested primer provides graduate students and non-specialists with a basic understanding of the concepts and methods of statistical physics and demonstrates their wide range of applications to interdisciplinary topics in the field of complex system sciences, including selected aspects of theoretical modeling in biology and the social sciences. Generally speaking, the goals of statistical physics may be summarized as follows: on the one hand to study systems composed of a large number of interacting units, and on the other to predict the macroscopic, collective behavior of the system considered from the perspective of the microscopic laws governing the dynamics of the individual entities. These two goals are essentially also shared by what is now called 'complex systems science', and as such, systems studied in the framework of statistical physics may be considered to be among the simplest examples of complex systems – while also offering a rather well developed mathematical treatment. The second ...

PREFACE: Statistical Physics of Complex Fluids

Science.gov (United States)

Golestanian, R.; Khajehpour, M. R. H.; Kolahchi, M. R.; Rouhani, S.

2005-04-01

The field of complex fluids is a rapidly developing, highly interdisciplinary field that brings together people from a plethora of backgrounds such as mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, materials science, applied mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. In this melting pot of science, the traditional boundaries of various scientific disciplines have been set aside. It is this very property of the field that has guaranteed its richness and prosperity since the final decade of the 20th century and into the 21st. The C3 Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), which is the commission for statistical physics that organizes the international STATPHYS conferences, encourages various, more focused, satellite meetings to complement the main event. For the STATPHYS22 conference in Bangalore (July 2004), Iran was recognized by the STATPHYS22 organizers as suitable to host such a satellite meeting and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) was chosen to be the site of this meeting. It was decided to organize a meeting in the field of complex fluids, which is a fairly developed field in Iran. This international meeting, and an accompanying summer school, were intended to boost international connections for both the research groups working in Iran, and several other groups working in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa. The meeting, entitled `Statistical Physics of Complex Fluids' was held at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) in Zanjan, Iran, from 27 June to 1 July 2004. The main topics discussed at the meeting included: biological statistical physics, wetting and microfluidics, transport in complex media, soft and granular matter, and rheology of complex fluids. At this meeting, 22 invited lectures by eminent scientists were attended by 107 participants from different countries. The poster session consisted of 45 presentations which, in addition to the main topics of the

Thermodynamics, Gibbs Method and Statistical Physics of Electron Gases Gibbs Method and Statistical Physics of Electron Gases

CERN Document Server

Askerov, Bahram M

2010-01-01

This book deals with theoretical thermodynamics and the statistical physics of electron and particle gases. While treating the laws of thermodynamics from both classical and quantum theoretical viewpoints, it posits that the basis of the statistical theory of macroscopic properties of a system is the microcanonical distribution of isolated systems, from which all canonical distributions stem. To calculate the free energy, the Gibbs method is applied to ideal and non-ideal gases, and also to a crystalline solid. Considerable attention is paid to the Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein quantum statistics and its application to different quantum gases, and electron gas in both metals and semiconductors is considered in a nonequilibrium state. A separate chapter treats the statistical theory of thermodynamic properties of an electron gas in a quantizing magnetic field.

Lattice ellipsoidal statistical BGK model for thermal non-equilibrium flows

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Jianping; Zhang, Yonghao; Hadjiconstantinou, Nicolas G.; Radtke, Gregg A.; Shan, Xiaowen

2013-03-01

A thermal lattice Boltzmann model is constructed on the basis of the ellipsoidal statistical Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (ES-BGK) collision operator via the Hermite moment representation. The resulting lattice ES-BGK model uses a single distribution function and features an adjustable Prandtl number. Numerical simulations show that using a moderate discrete velocity set, this model can accurately recover steady and transient solutions of the ES-BGK equation in the slip-flow and early transition regimes in the small Mach number limit that is typical of microscale problems of practical interest. In the transition regime in particular, comparisons with numerical solutions of the ES-BGK model, direct Monte Carlo and low-variance deviational Monte Carlo simulations show good accuracy for values of the Knudsen number up to approximately 0.5. On the other hand, highly non-equilibrium phenomena characterized by high Mach numbers, such as viscous heating and force-driven Poiseuille flow for large values of the driving force, are more difficult to capture quantitatively in the transition regime using discretizations chosen with computational efficiency in mind such as the one used here, although improved accuracy is observed as the number of discrete velocities is increased.

Gauge/gravity duality. From quantum phase transitions towards out-of-equilibrium physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ngo Thanh, Hai

2011-01-01

In this dissertation we use gauge/gravity duality to investigate various phenomena of strongly coupled field theories. Of special interest are quantum phase transitions, quantum critical points, transport phenomena of charges and the thermalization process of strongly coupled medium. The systems studied in this thesis might be used as models for describing condensed matter physics in a superfluid phase near the quantum critical point and the physics of quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a deconfinement phase of QCD, which has been recently created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Moreover, we follow the line of considering different gravity setups whose dual field descriptions show interesting phenomena of systems in thermal equilibrium, slightly out-of-equilibrium and far-from-equilibrium. We first focus on systems in equilibrium and construct holographic superfluids at finite baryon and isospin charge densities. For that we use two different approaches, the bottom-up with an U(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory with back-reaction and the top-down approach with a D3/D7 brane setup with two coincident D7-brane probes. In both cases we observe phase transitions from a normal to a superfluid phase at finite and also at zero temperature. In our setup, the gravity duals of superfluids are Anti-de Sitter black holes which develop vector-hair. Studying the order of phase transitions at zero temperature, in the D3/D7 brane setup we always find a second order phase transition, while in the Einstein-Yang-Mills theory, depending on the strength of the back-reaction, we obtain a continuous or first order transition. We then move to systems which are slightly out-of-equilibrium. Using the D3/D7 brane setup with N c coincident D3-branes and N f coincident D7-brane probes, we compute transport coefficients associated with massive N=2 supersymmetric hypermultiplet fields propagating through an N=4 SU(N c ) super Yang-Mills plasma in the limit of N f c . Introducing a baryon

Gauge/gravity duality. From quantum phase transitions towards out-of-equilibrium physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ngo Thanh, Hai

2011-05-02

In this dissertation we use gauge/gravity duality to investigate various phenomena of strongly coupled field theories. Of special interest are quantum phase transitions, quantum critical points, transport phenomena of charges and the thermalization process of strongly coupled medium. The systems studied in this thesis might be used as models for describing condensed matter physics in a superfluid phase near the quantum critical point and the physics of quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a deconfinement phase of QCD, which has been recently created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Moreover, we follow the line of considering different gravity setups whose dual field descriptions show interesting phenomena of systems in thermal equilibrium, slightly out-of-equilibrium and far-from-equilibrium. We first focus on systems in equilibrium and construct holographic superfluids at finite baryon and isospin charge densities. For that we use two different approaches, the bottom-up with an U(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory with back-reaction and the top-down approach with a D3/D7 brane setup with two coincident D7-brane probes. In both cases we observe phase transitions from a normal to a superfluid phase at finite and also at zero temperature. In our setup, the gravity duals of superfluids are Anti-de Sitter black holes which develop vector-hair. Studying the order of phase transitions at zero temperature, in the D3/D7 brane setup we always find a second order phase transition, while in the Einstein-Yang-Mills theory, depending on the strength of the back-reaction, we obtain a continuous or first order transition. We then move to systems which are slightly out-of-equilibrium. Using the D3/D7 brane setup with N{sub c} coincident D3-branes and N{sub f} coincident D7-brane probes, we compute transport coefficients associated with massive N=2 supersymmetric hypermultiplet fields propagating through an N=4 SU(N{sub c}) super Yang-Mills plasma in the limit of N{sub f}<

Pramana – Journal of Physics | Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

pp 785-801 Invited Talks:- Topic 1. Rigorous results and exact solutions; general aspects of statistical physics; thermodynamics. Classical charged fluids at equilibrium near an interface: Exact analytical density profiles and surface tension · Françoise Cornu · More Details Abstract Fulltext PDF. The structure of equilibrium ...

Emergent dynamic structures and statistical law in spherical lattice gas automata

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Zhenwei

2017-12-01

Various lattice gas automata have been proposed in the past decades to simulate physics and address a host of problems on collective dynamics arising in diverse fields. In this work, we employ the lattice gas model defined on the sphere to investigate the curvature-driven dynamic structures and analyze the statistical behaviors in equilibrium. Under the simple propagation and collision rules, we show that the uniform collective movement of the particles on the sphere is geometrically frustrated, leading to several nonequilibrium dynamic structures not found in the planar lattice, such as the emergent bubble and vortex structures. With the accumulation of the collision effect, the system ultimately reaches equilibrium in the sense that the distribution of the coarse-grained speed approaches the two-dimensional Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution despite the population fluctuations in the coarse-grained cells. The emergent regularity in the statistical behavior of the system is rationalized by mapping our system to a generalized random walk model. This work demonstrates the capability of the spherical lattice gas automaton in revealing the lattice-guided dynamic structures and simulating the equilibrium physics. It suggests the promising possibility of using lattice gas automata defined on various curved surfaces to explore geometrically driven nonequilibrium physics.

Emergent dynamic structures and statistical law in spherical lattice gas automata.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Zhenwei

2017-12-01

Various lattice gas automata have been proposed in the past decades to simulate physics and address a host of problems on collective dynamics arising in diverse fields. In this work, we employ the lattice gas model defined on the sphere to investigate the curvature-driven dynamic structures and analyze the statistical behaviors in equilibrium. Under the simple propagation and collision rules, we show that the uniform collective movement of the particles on the sphere is geometrically frustrated, leading to several nonequilibrium dynamic structures not found in the planar lattice, such as the emergent bubble and vortex structures. With the accumulation of the collision effect, the system ultimately reaches equilibrium in the sense that the distribution of the coarse-grained speed approaches the two-dimensional Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution despite the population fluctuations in the coarse-grained cells. The emergent regularity in the statistical behavior of the system is rationalized by mapping our system to a generalized random walk model. This work demonstrates the capability of the spherical lattice gas automaton in revealing the lattice-guided dynamic structures and simulating the equilibrium physics. It suggests the promising possibility of using lattice gas automata defined on various curved surfaces to explore geometrically driven nonequilibrium physics.

1. Warsaw School of Statistical Physics - Poster Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

The abstracts of information presented in posters during '1st Warsaw School of Statistical Physics' which held in Kazimierz Dolny - Poland are presented. They cover different aspects of statistical processes like diffusion, fluid hydrodynamics as well as modern quantum mechanical methods of their solutions

Statistical physics of pairwise probability models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roudi, Yasser; Aurell, Erik; Hertz, John

2009-01-01

(dansk abstrakt findes ikke) Statistical models for describing the probability distribution over the states of biological systems are commonly used for dimensional reduction. Among these models, pairwise models are very attractive in part because they can be fit using a reasonable amount of  data......: knowledge of the means and correlations between pairs of elements in the system is sufficient. Not surprisingly, then, using pairwise models for studying neural data has been the focus of many studies in recent years. In this paper, we describe how tools from statistical physics can be employed for studying...

Non-Equilibrium Heavy Flavored Hadron Yields from Chemical Equilibrium Strangeness-Rich QGP

OpenAIRE

Kuznetsova, Inga; Rafelski, Johann

2008-01-01

The yields of heavy flavored hadrons emitted from strangeness-rich QGP are evaluated within chemical non-equilibrium statistical hadronization model, conserving strangeness, charm, and entropy yields at hadronization.

A new formalism for non extensive physical systems: Tsallis Thermo statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tirnakli, U.; Bueyuekkilic, F.; Demirhan, D.

1999-01-01

Although Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) statistics provides a suitable tool which enables us to handle a large number of physical systems satisfactorily, it has some basic restrictions. Recently a non extensive thermo statistics has been proposed by C.Tsallis to handle the non extensive physical systems and up to now, besides the generalization of some of the conventional concepts, the formalism has been prosperous in some of the physical applications. In this study, our effort is to introduce Tsallis thermo statistics in some details and to emphasize its achievements on physical systems by noting the recent developments on this line

Academic Training Lecture: Statistical Methods for Particle Physics

CERN Multimedia

PH Department

2012-01-01

2, 3, 4 and 5 April 2012 Academic Training Lecture  Regular Programme from 11:00 to 12:00 -  Bldg. 222-R-001 - Filtration Plant Statistical Methods for Particle Physics by Glen Cowan (Royal Holloway) The series of four lectures will introduce some of the important statistical methods used in Particle Physics, and should be particularly relevant to those involved in the analysis of LHC data. The lectures will include an introduction to statistical tests, parameter estimation, and the application of these tools to searches for new phenomena.  Both frequentist and Bayesian methods will be described, with particular emphasis on treatment of systematic uncertainties.  The lectures will also cover unfolding, that is, estimation of a distribution in binned form where the variable in question is subject to measurement errors.

Theoretical and computational studies of non-equilibrium and non-statistical dynamics in the gas phase, in the condensed phase and at interfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Spezia, Riccardo; Martínez-Nuñez, Emilio; Vazquez, Saulo; Hase, William L

2017-04-28

In this Introduction, we show the basic problems of non-statistical and non-equilibrium phenomena related to the papers collected in this themed issue. Over the past few years, significant advances in both computing power and development of theories have allowed the study of larger systems, increasing the time length of simulations and improving the quality of potential energy surfaces. In particular, the possibility of using quantum chemistry to calculate energies and forces 'on the fly' has paved the way to directly study chemical reactions. This has provided a valuable tool to explore molecular mechanisms at given temperatures and energies and to see whether these reactive trajectories follow statistical laws and/or minimum energy pathways. This themed issue collects different aspects of the problem and gives an overview of recent works and developments in different contexts, from the gas phase to the condensed phase to excited states.This article is part of the themed issue 'Theoretical and computational studies of non-equilibrium and non-statistical dynamics in the gas phase, in the condensed phase and at interfaces'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Topics in statistical and theoretical physics

CERN Document Server

Dobrushin, R L; Shubin, M A

1996-01-01

This is the second of two volumes dedicated to the scientific heritage of F. A. Berezin (1931-1980). Before his untimely death, Berezin had an important influence on physics and mathematics, discovering new ideas in mathematical physics, representation theory, analysis, geometry, and other areas of mathematics. His crowning achievements were the introduction of a new notion of deformation quantization and Grassmannian analysis ("supermathematics"). Collected here are papers by many of his colleagues and others who worked in related areas, representing a wide spectrum of topics in statistical a

Relation between absorbed dose, charged particle equilibrium and nuclear transformations: A non-equilibrium thermodynamics point of view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez-Romero, J. T.

2006-01-01

We present a discussion to show that the absorbed dose D is a time-dependent function. This time dependence is demonstrated based on the concepts of charged particle equilibrium and on radiation equilibrium within the context of thermodynamic non-equilibrium. In the latter, the time dependence is due to changes of the rest mass energy of the nuclei and elementary particles involved in the terms ΣQ and Q that appear in the definitions of energy imparted ε and energy deposit ε i , respectively. In fact, nothing is said about the averaging operation of the non-stochastic quantity mean energy imparted ε-bar, which is used in the definition of D according to ICRU 60. It is shown in this research that the averaging operation necessary to define the ε-bar employed to get D cannot be performed with an equilibrium statistical operator ρ(r) as could be expected. Rather, the operation has to be defined with a time-dependent non-equilibrium statistical operator (r, t) therefore, D is a time-dependent function D(r, t). (authors)

Statistical Physics: Third Tohwa University International Conference. AIP Conference Proceedings No. 519 [ACPCS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tokuyama, M.; Stanley, H.E.

2000-01-01

The main purpose of the Tohwa University International Conference on Statistical Physics is to provide an opportunity for an international group of experimentalists, theoreticians, and computational scientists who are working on various fields of statistical physics to gather together and discuss their recent advances. The conference covered six topics: complex systems, general methods of statistical physics, biological physics, cross-disciplinary physics, information science, and econophysics

Statistical Mechanics of the Human Placenta: A Stationary State of a Near-Equilibrium System in a Linear Regime.

Science.gov (United States)

Lecarpentier, Yves; Claes, Victor; Hébert, Jean-Louis; Krokidis, Xénophon; Blanc, François-Xavier; Michel, Francine; Timbely, Oumar

2015-01-01

All near-equilibrium systems under linear regime evolve to stationary states in which there is constant entropy production rate. In an open chemical system that exchanges matter and energy with the exterior, we can identify both the energy and entropy flows associated with the exchange of matter and energy. This can be achieved by applying statistical mechanics (SM), which links the microscopic properties of a system to its bulk properties. In the case of contractile tissues such as human placenta, Huxley's equations offer a phenomenological formalism for applying SM. SM was investigated in human placental stem villi (PSV) (n = 40). PSV were stimulated by means of KCl exposure (n = 20) and tetanic electrical stimulation (n = 20). This made it possible to determine statistical entropy (S), internal energy (E), affinity (A), thermodynamic force (A / T) (T: temperature), thermodynamic flow (v) and entropy production rate (A / T x v). We found that PSV operated near equilibrium, i.e., A ≺≺ 2500 J/mol and in a stationary linear regime, i.e., (A / T) varied linearly with v. As v was dramatically low, entropy production rate which quantified irreversibility of chemical processes appeared to be the lowest ever observed in any contractile system.

Physics of future equilibrium state of nuclear energy utilization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sekimoto, H.

1994-01-01

The governing equations for future equilibrium nuclear state are presented and their characteristics are discussed. These equations are solved for several typical cases. In the present study on the equilibrium state, two coincidences are found. The first is the coincidence on the neutron balance performed by the nuclides satisfying the equilibrium condition. The finite neutron multiplication factor is near unity. The second is the coincidence on the toxicity. The produced long-life fission product toxicity is near the incinerated natural fuel toxicity. (author). 2 refs., 2 tabs., 4 figs

Statistical physics of non-thermal phase transitions from foundations to applications

CERN Document Server

Abaimov, Sergey G

2015-01-01

Statistical physics can be used to better understand non-thermal complex systems—phenomena such as stock-market crashes, revolutions in society and in science, fractures in engineered materials and in the Earth’s crust, catastrophes, traffic jams, petroleum clusters, polymerization, self-organized criticality and many others exhibit behaviors resembling those of thermodynamic systems. In particular, many of these systems possess phase transitions identical to critical or spinodal phenomena in statistical physics. The application of the well-developed formalism of statistical physics to non-thermal complex systems may help to predict and prevent such catastrophes as earthquakes, snow-avalanches and landslides, failure of engineering structures, or economical crises. This book addresses the issue step-by-step, from phenomenological analogies between complex systems and statistical physics to more complex aspects, such as correlations, fluctuation-dissipation theorem, susceptibility, the concept of free ener...

Non-equilibrium physics and evolution—adaptation, extinction, and ecology: a Key Issues review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kussell, E; Vucelja, M

2014-01-01

Evolutionary dynamics in nature constitute an immensely complex non-equilibrium process. We review the application of physical models of evolution, by focusing on adaptation, extinction, and ecology. In each case, we examine key concepts by working through examples. Adaptation is discussed in the context of bacterial evolution, with a view toward the relationship between growth rates, mutation rates, selection strength, and environmental changes. Extinction dynamics for an isolated population are reviewed, with emphasis on the relation between timescales of extinction, population size, and temporally correlated noise. Ecological models are discussed by focusing on the effect of spatial interspecies interactions on diversity. Connections between physical processes—such as diffusion, turbulence, and localization—and evolutionary phenomena are highlighted. (key issues reviews)

A Quantal Response Statistical Equilibrium Model of Induced Technical Change in an Interactive Factor Market: Firm-Level Evidence in the EU Economies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jangho Yang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper studies the pattern of technical change at the firm level by applying and extending the Quantal Response Statistical Equilibrium model (QRSE. The model assumes that a large number of cost minimizing firms decide whether to adopt a new technology based on the potential rate of cost reduction. The firm in the model is assumed to have a limited capacity to process market signals so there is a positive degree of uncertainty in adopting a new technology. The adoption decision by the firm, in turn, makes an impact on the whole market through changes in the factor-price ratio. The equilibrium distribution of the model is a unimodal probability distribution with four parameters, which is qualitatively different from the Walrasian notion of equilibrium in so far as the state of equilibrium is not a single state but a probability distribution of multiple states. This paper applies Bayesian inference to estimate the unknown parameters of the model using the firm-level data of seven advanced OECD countries over eight years and shows that the mentioned equilibrium distribution from the model can satisfactorily recover the observed pattern of technical change.

Statistical physics a prelude and fugue for engineers

CERN Document Server

Piazza, Roberto

2017-01-01

This book, provides a general introduction to the ideas and methods of statistical mechanics with the principal aim of meeting the needs of Master’s students in chemical, mechanical, and materials science engineering. Extensive introductory information is presented on many general physics topics in which students in engineering are inadequately trained, ranging from the Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics to basic quantum mechanics, electromagnetic fields in matter, intermolecular forces, and transport phenomena. Since engineers should be able to apply physical concepts, the book also focuses on the practical applications of statistical physics to material science and to cutting-edge technologies, with brief but informative sections on, for example, interfacial properties, disperse systems, nucleation, magnetic materials, superfluidity, and ultralow temperature technologies. The book adopts a graded approach to learning, the opening four basic-level chapters being followed by advanced “starred�...

Statistical physics of hard combinatorial optimization: Vertex cover problem

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Jin-Hua; Zhou, Hai-Jun

2014-07-01

Typical-case computation complexity is a research topic at the boundary of computer science, applied mathematics, and statistical physics. In the last twenty years, the replica-symmetry-breaking mean field theory of spin glasses and the associated message-passing algorithms have greatly deepened our understanding of typical-case computation complexity. In this paper, we use the vertex cover problem, a basic nondeterministic-polynomial (NP)-complete combinatorial optimization problem of wide application, as an example to introduce the statistical physical methods and algorithms. We do not go into the technical details but emphasize mainly the intuitive physical meanings of the message-passing equations. A nonfamiliar reader shall be able to understand to a large extent the physics behind the mean field approaches and to adjust the mean field methods in solving other optimization problems.

Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Self-Replicating Protocells

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fellermann, Harold; Corominas-Murtra, Bernat; Hansen, Per Lyngs

2018-01-01

We provide a non-equilibrium thermodynamic description of the life-cycle of a droplet based, chemically feasible, system of protocells. By coupling the protocells metabolic kinetics with its thermodynamics, we demonstrate how the system can be driven out of equilibrium to ensure protocell growth...... and replication. This coupling allows us to derive the equations of evolution and to rigorously demonstrate how growth and replication life-cycle can be understood as a non-equilibrium thermodynamic cycle. The process does not appeal to genetic information or inheritance, and is based only on non......-equilibrium physics considerations. Our non-equilibrium thermodynamic description of simple, yet realistic, processes of protocell growth and replication, represents an advance in our physical understanding of a central biological phenomenon both in connection to the origin of life and for modern biology....

Correlated randomness: Some examples of exotic statistical physics

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

journal of. May 2005 physics pp. 645–660. Correlated randomness: Some examples of exotic statistical physics .... The key idea is that scale invariance is a statement not about algebraic .... Very recently an article appeared in Phys. Rev. ... One quarter of any newspaper with a financial section is filled with economic fluc-.

Statistical and thermal physics an introduction

CERN Document Server

Hoch, Michael JR

2011-01-01

""When I started reading Michael J.R. Hoch's book Statistical and Thermal Physics: An Introduction I thought to myself that this is another book the same as a large group of others with similar content. … But during my reading this unjustified belief changed. … The main reason for this change was the way of information presentation: … the way of presentation is designed so that the reader receives only the information that is necessary to give the essence of the problem. … this book will provide an introduction to the subject especially for those who are interested in basic or applied physics.

Representative volume size: A comparison of statistical continuum mechanics and statistical physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

AIDUN,JOHN B.; TRUCANO,TIMOTHY G.; LO,CHI S.; FYE,RICHARD M.

1999-05-01

In this combination background and position paper, the authors argue that careful work is needed to develop accurate methods for relating the results of fine-scale numerical simulations of material processes to meaningful values of macroscopic properties for use in constitutive models suitable for finite element solid mechanics simulations. To provide a definite context for this discussion, the problem is couched in terms of the lack of general objective criteria for identifying the size of the representative volume (RV) of a material. The objective of this report is to lay out at least the beginnings of an approach for applying results and methods from statistical physics to develop concepts and tools necessary for determining the RV size, as well as alternatives to RV volume-averaging for situations in which the RV is unmanageably large. The background necessary to understand the pertinent issues and statistical physics concepts is presented.

Technical note: Evaluation of the simultaneous measurements of mesospheric OH, HO2, and O3 under a photochemical equilibrium assumption - a statistical approach

Science.gov (United States)

Kulikov, Mikhail Y.; Nechaev, Anton A.; Belikovich, Mikhail V.; Ermakova, Tatiana S.; Feigin, Alexander M.

2018-05-01

This Technical Note presents a statistical approach to evaluating simultaneous measurements of several atmospheric components under the assumption of photochemical equilibrium. We consider simultaneous measurements of OH, HO2, and O3 at the altitudes of the mesosphere as a specific example and their daytime photochemical equilibrium as an evaluating relationship. A simplified algebraic equation relating local concentrations of these components in the 50-100 km altitude range has been derived. The parameters of the equation are temperature, neutral density, local zenith angle, and the rates of eight reactions. We have performed a one-year simulation of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere using a 3-D chemical-transport model. The simulation shows that the discrepancy between the calculated evolution of the components and the equilibrium value given by the equation does not exceed 3-4 % in the full range of altitudes independent of season or latitude. We have developed a statistical Bayesian evaluation technique for simultaneous measurements of OH, HO2, and O3 based on the equilibrium equation taking into account the measurement error. The first results of the application of the technique to MLS/Aura data (Microwave Limb Sounder) are presented in this Technical Note. It has been found that the satellite data of the HO2 distribution regularly demonstrate lower altitudes of this component's mesospheric maximum. This has also been confirmed by model HO2 distributions and comparison with offline retrieval of HO2 from the daily zonal means MLS radiance.

Beyond quantum microcanonical statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fresch, Barbara; Moro, Giorgio J.

2011-01-01

Descriptions of molecular systems usually refer to two distinct theoretical frameworks. On the one hand the quantum pure state, i.e., the wavefunction, of an isolated system is determined to calculate molecular properties and their time evolution according to the unitary Schroedinger equation. On the other hand a mixed state, i.e., a statistical density matrix, is the standard formalism to account for thermal equilibrium, as postulated in the microcanonical quantum statistics. In the present paper an alternative treatment relying on a statistical analysis of the possible wavefunctions of an isolated system is presented. In analogy with the classical ergodic theory, the time evolution of the wavefunction determines the probability distribution in the phase space pertaining to an isolated system. However, this alone cannot account for a well defined thermodynamical description of the system in the macroscopic limit, unless a suitable probability distribution for the quantum constants of motion is introduced. We present a workable formalism assuring the emergence of typical values of thermodynamic functions, such as the internal energy and the entropy, in the large size limit of the system. This allows the identification of macroscopic properties independently of the specific realization of the quantum state. A description of material systems in agreement with equilibrium thermodynamics is then derived without constraints on the physical constituents and interactions of the system. Furthermore, the canonical statistics is recovered in all generality for the reduced density matrix of a subsystem.

Statistical physics of hard optimization problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zdeborova, L.

2009-01-01

Optimization is fundamental in many areas of science, from computer science and information theory to engineering and statistical physics, as well as to biology or social sciences. It typically involves a large number of variables and a cost function depending on these variables. Optimization problems in the non-deterministic polynomial (NP)-complete class are particularly difficult, it is believed that the number of operations required to minimize the cost function is in the most difficult cases exponential in the system size. However, even in an NP-complete problem the practically arising instances might, in fact, be easy to solve. The principal question we address in this article is: How to recognize if an NP-complete constraint satisfaction problem is typically hard and what are the main reasons for this? We adopt approaches from the statistical physics of disordered systems, in particular the cavity method developed originally to describe glassy systems. We describe new properties of the space of solutions in two of the most studied constraint satisfaction problems - random satisfy ability and random graph coloring. We suggest a relation between the existence of the so-called frozen variables and the algorithmic hardness of a problem. Based on these insights, we introduce a new class of problems which we named ”locked” constraint satisfaction, where the statistical description is easily solvable, but from the algorithmic point of view they are even more challenging than the canonical satisfy ability.

Statistical physics of hard optimization problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zdeborova, L.

2009-01-01

Optimization is fundamental in many areas of science, from computer science and information theory to engineering and statistical physics, as well as to biology or social sciences. It typically involves a large number of variables and a cost function depending on these variables. Optimization problems in the non-deterministic polynomial-complete class are particularly difficult, it is believed that the number of operations required to minimize the cost function is in the most difficult cases exponential in the system size. However, even in an non-deterministic polynomial-complete problem the practically arising instances might, in fact, be easy to solve. The principal the question we address in the article is: How to recognize if an non-deterministic polynomial-complete constraint satisfaction problem is typically hard and what are the main reasons for this? We adopt approaches from the statistical physics of disordered systems, in particular the cavity method developed originally to describe glassy systems. We describe new properties of the space of solutions in two of the most studied constraint satisfaction problems - random satisfiability and random graph coloring. We suggest a relation between the existence of the so-called frozen variables and the algorithmic hardness of a problem. Based on these insights, we introduce a new class of problems which we named 'locked' constraint satisfaction, where the statistical description is easily solvable, but from the algorithmic point of view they are even more challenging than the canonical satisfiability (Authors)

Statistical physics of hard optimization problems

Science.gov (United States)

Zdeborová, Lenka

2009-06-01

Optimization is fundamental in many areas of science, from computer science and information theory to engineering and statistical physics, as well as to biology or social sciences. It typically involves a large number of variables and a cost function depending on these variables. Optimization problems in the non-deterministic polynomial (NP)-complete class are particularly difficult, it is believed that the number of operations required to minimize the cost function is in the most difficult cases exponential in the system size. However, even in an NP-complete problem the practically arising instances might, in fact, be easy to solve. The principal question we address in this article is: How to recognize if an NP-complete constraint satisfaction problem is typically hard and what are the main reasons for this? We adopt approaches from the statistical physics of disordered systems, in particular the cavity method developed originally to describe glassy systems. We describe new properties of the space of solutions in two of the most studied constraint satisfaction problems - random satisfiability and random graph coloring. We suggest a relation between the existence of the so-called frozen variables and the algorithmic hardness of a problem. Based on these insights, we introduce a new class of problems which we named "locked" constraint satisfaction, where the statistical description is easily solvable, but from the algorithmic point of view they are even more challenging than the canonical satisfiability.

"Statistical Techniques for Particle Physics" (2/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2009-01-01

This series will consist of four 1-hour lectures on statistics for particle physics. The goal will be to build up to techniques meant for dealing with problems of realistic complexity while maintaining a formal approach. I will also try to incorporate usage of common tools like ROOT, RooFit, and the newly developed RooStats framework into the lectures. The first lecture will begin with a review the basic principles of probability, some terminology, and the three main approaches towards statistical inference (Frequentist, Bayesian, and Likelihood-based). I will then outline the statistical basis for multivariate analysis techniques (the Neyman-Pearson lemma) and the motivation for machine learning algorithms. Later, I will extend simple hypothesis testing to the case in which the statistical model has one or many parameters (the Neyman Construction and the Feldman-Cousins technique). From there I will outline techniques to incorporate background uncertainties. If time allows, I will touch on the statist...

"Statistical Techniques for Particle Physics" (1/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2009-01-01

This series will consist of four 1-hour lectures on statistics for particle physics. The goal will be to build up to techniques meant for dealing with problems of realistic complexity while maintaining a formal approach. I will also try to incorporate usage of common tools like ROOT, RooFit, and the newly developed RooStats framework into the lectures. The first lecture will begin with a review the basic principles of probability, some terminology, and the three main approaches towards statistical inference (Frequentist, Bayesian, and Likelihood-based). I will then outline the statistical basis for multivariate analysis techniques (the Neyman-Pearson lemma) and the motivation for machine learning algorithms. Later, I will extend simple hypothesis testing to the case in which the statistical model has one or many parameters (the Neyman Construction and the Feldman-Cousins technique). From there I will outline techniques to incorporate background uncertainties. If time allows, I will touch on the statist...

"Statistical Techniques for Particle Physics" (4/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2009-01-01

This series will consist of four 1-hour lectures on statistics for particle physics. The goal will be to build up to techniques meant for dealing with problems of realistic complexity while maintaining a formal approach. I will also try to incorporate usage of common tools like ROOT, RooFit, and the newly developed RooStats framework into the lectures. The first lecture will begin with a review the basic principles of probability, some terminology, and the three main approaches towards statistical inference (Frequentist, Bayesian, and Likelihood-based). I will then outline the statistical basis for multivariate analysis techniques (the Neyman-Pearson lemma) and the motivation for machine learning algorithms. Later, I will extend simple hypothesis testing to the case in which the statistical model has one or many parameters (the Neyman Construction and the Feldman-Cousins technique). From there I will outline techniques to incorporate background uncertainties. If time allows, I will touch on the statist...

"Statistical Techniques for Particle Physics" (3/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2009-01-01

This series will consist of four 1-hour lectures on statistics for particle physics. The goal will be to build up to techniques meant for dealing with problems of realistic complexity while maintaining a formal approach. I will also try to incorporate usage of common tools like ROOT, RooFit, and the newly developed RooStats framework into the lectures. The first lecture will begin with a review the basic principles of probability, some terminology, and the three main approaches towards statistical inference (Frequentist, Bayesian, and Likelihood-based). I will then outline the statistical basis for multivariate analysis techniques (the Neyman-Pearson lemma) and the motivation for machine learning algorithms. Later, I will extend simple hypothesis testing to the case in which the statistical model has one or many parameters (the Neyman Construction and the Feldman-Cousins technique). From there I will outline techniques to incorporate background uncertainties. If time allows, I will touch on the statist...

Adsorption of diclofenac and nimesulide on activated carbon: Statistical physics modeling and effect of adsorbate size

Science.gov (United States)

Sellaoui, Lotfi; Mechi, Nesrine; Lima, Éder Cláudio; Dotto, Guilherme Luiz; Ben Lamine, Abdelmottaleb

2017-10-01

Based on statistical physics elements, the equilibrium adsorption of diclofenac (DFC) and nimesulide (NM) on activated carbon was analyzed by a multilayer model with saturation. The paper aimed to describe experimentally and theoretically the adsorption process and study the effect of adsorbate size using the model parameters. From numerical simulation, the number of molecules per site showed that the adsorbate molecules (DFC and NM) were mostly anchored in both sides of the pore walls. The receptor sites density increase suggested that additional sites appeared during the process, to participate in DFC and NM adsorption. The description of the adsorption energy behavior indicated that the process was physisorption. Finally, by a model parameters correlation, the size effect of the adsorbate was deduced indicating that the molecule dimension has a negligible effect on the DFC and NM adsorption.

Conference: Statistical Physics and Biological Information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gross, David J.; Hwa, Terence

2001-01-01

In the spring of 2001, the Institute for Theoretical Physics ran a 6 month scientific program on Statistical Physics and Biological Information. This program was organized by Walter Fitch (UC Irvine), Terence Hwa (UC San Diego), Luca Peliti (University Federico II), Naples Gary Stormo (Washington University School of Medicine) and Chao Tang (NEC). Overall scientific supervision was provided by David Gross, Director, ITP. The ITP has an online conference/program proceeding which consists of audio and transparencies of almost all of the talks held during this program. Over 100 talks are available on the site at http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/infobio01/

Statistical Issues in Searches for New Physics

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2015-01-01

Given the cost, both financial and even more importantly in terms of human effort, in building High Energy Physics accelerators and detectors and running them, it is important to use good statistical techniques in analysing data. This talk covers some of the statistical issues that arise in searches for New Physics. They include topics such as: Should we insist on the 5 sigma criterion for discovery claims? What are the relative merits of a Raster Scan or a "2-D" approach? P(A|B) is not the same as P(B|A) The meaning of p-values Example of a problematic likelihood What is Wilks Theorem and when does it not apply? How should we deal with the "Look Elsewhere Effect"? Dealing with systematics such as background parametrisation Coverage: What is it and does my method have the correct coverage? The use of p0 vs. p1 plots

A new equation of state Based on Nuclear Statistical Equilibrium for Core-Collapse Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Furusawa, Shun; Yamada, Shoichi; Sumiyoshi, Kohsuke; Suzuki, Hideyuki

2012-09-01

We calculate a new equation of state for baryons at sub-nuclear densities for the use in core-collapse simulations of massive stars. The formulation is the nuclear statistical equilibrium description and the liquid drop approximation of nuclei. The model free energy to minimize is calculated by relativistic mean field theory for nucleons and the mass formula for nuclei with atomic number up to ~ 1000. We have also taken into account the pasta phase. We find that the free energy and other thermodynamical quantities are not very different from those given in the standard EOSs that adopt the single nucleus approximation. On the other hand, the average mass is systematically different, which may have an important effect on the rates of electron captures and coherent neutrino scatterings on nuclei in supernova cores.

The Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium Approach to Far-From-Local-Equilibrium Thermodynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hameed Metghalchi

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium (RCCE method for the description of the time-dependent behavior of dynamical systems in non-equilibrium states is a general, effective, physically based method for model order reduction that was originally developed in the framework of thermodynamics and chemical kinetics. A generalized mathematical formulation is presented here that allows including nonlinear constraints in non-local equilibrium systems characterized by the existence of a non-increasing Lyapunov functional under the system’s internal dynamics. The generalized formulation of RCCE enables to clarify the essentials of the method and the built-in general feature of thermodynamic consistency in the chemical kinetics context. In this paper, we work out the details of the method in a generalized mathematical-physics framework, but for definiteness we detail its well-known implementation in the traditional chemical kinetics framework. We detail proofs and spell out explicit functional dependences so as to bring out and clarify each underlying assumption of the method. In the standard context of chemical kinetics of ideal gas mixtures, we discuss the relations between the validity of the detailed balance condition off-equilibrium and the thermodynamic consistency of the method. We also discuss two examples of RCCE gas-phase combustion calculations to emphasize the constraint-dependent performance of the RCCE method.

Non-equilibrium dynamics of one-dimensional Bose gases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langen, T.

2013-01-01

Understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems is an open problem on vastly different energy, length, and time scales. Examples range from the dynamics of the early universe and heavy-ion collisions to the subtle coherence and transport properties in condensed matter physics. However, realizations of such quantum many-body systems, which are both well isolated from the environment and accessible to experimental study are scarce. This thesis presents a series of experiments with ultracold one-dimensional Bose gases. These gases combine a nearly perfect isolation from the environment with many well-established methods to manipulate and probe their quantum states. This makes them an ideal model system to explore the physics of quantum many body systems out of equilibrium. In the experiments, a well-defined non-equilibrium state is created by splitting a single one-dimensional gas coherently into two parts. The relaxation of this state is probed using matter-wave interferometry. The Observations reveal the emergence of a prethermalized steady state which differs strongly from thermal equilibrium. Such thermal-like states had previously been predicted for a large variety of systems, but never been observed directly. Studying the relaxation process in further detail shows that the thermal correlations of the prethermalized state emerge locally in their final form and propagate through the system in a light-cone-like evolution. This provides first experimental evidence for the local relaxation conjecture, which links relaxation processes in quantum many-body systems to the propagation of correlations. Furthermore, engineering the initial state of the evolution demonstrates that the prethermalized state is described by a generalized Gibbs ensemble, an observation which substantiates the importance of this ensemble as an extension of standard statistical mechanics. Finally, an experiment is presented, where pairs of gases with an atom

Statistical physics of networks, information and complex systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ecke, Robert E [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2009-01-01

In this project we explore the mathematical methods and concepts of statistical physics that are fmding abundant applications across the scientific and technological spectrum from soft condensed matter systems and bio-infonnatics to economic and social systems. Our approach exploits the considerable similarity of concepts between statistical physics and computer science, allowing for a powerful multi-disciplinary approach that draws its strength from cross-fertilization and mUltiple interactions of researchers with different backgrounds. The work on this project takes advantage of the newly appreciated connection between computer science and statistics and addresses important problems in data storage, decoding, optimization, the infonnation processing properties of the brain, the interface between quantum and classical infonnation science, the verification of large software programs, modeling of complex systems including disease epidemiology, resource distribution issues, and the nature of highly fluctuating complex systems. Common themes that the project has been emphasizing are (i) neural computation, (ii) network theory and its applications, and (iii) a statistical physics approach to infonnation theory. The project's efforts focus on the general problem of optimization and variational techniques, algorithm development and infonnation theoretic approaches to quantum systems. These efforts are responsible for fruitful collaborations and the nucleation of science efforts that span multiple divisions such as EES, CCS, 0 , T, ISR and P. This project supports the DOE mission in Energy Security and Nuclear Non-Proliferation by developing novel infonnation science tools for communication, sensing, and interacting complex networks such as the internet or energy distribution system. The work also supports programs in Threat Reduction and Homeland Security.

Statistical Methods for Particle Physics (4/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2012-01-01

The series of four lectures will introduce some of the important statistical methods used in Particle Physics, and should be particularly relevant to those involved in the analysis of LHC data. The lectures will include an introduction to statistical tests, parameter estimation, and the application of these tools to searches for new phenomena. Both frequentist and Bayesian methods will be described, with particular emphasis on treatment of systematic uncertainties. The lectures will also cover unfolding, that is, estimation of a distribution in binned form where the variable in question is subject to measurement errors.

Statistical Methods for Particle Physics (1/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2012-01-01

The series of four lectures will introduce some of the important statistical methods used in Particle Physics, and should be particularly relevant to those involved in the analysis of LHC data. The lectures will include an introduction to statistical tests, parameter estimation, and the application of these tools to searches for new phenomena. Both frequentist and Bayesian methods will be described, with particular emphasis on treatment of systematic uncertainties. The lectures will also cover unfolding, that is, estimation of a distribution in binned form where the variable in question is subject to measurement errors.

Statistical Methods for Particle Physics (2/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2012-01-01

The series of four lectures will introduce some of the important statistical methods used in Particle Physics, and should be particularly relevant to those involved in the analysis of LHC data. The lectures will include an introduction to statistical tests, parameter estimation, and the application of these tools to searches for new phenomena. Both frequentist and Bayesian methods will be described, with particular emphasis on treatment of systematic uncertainties. The lectures will also cover unfolding, that is, estimation of a distribution in binned form where the variable in question is subject to measurement errors.

Statistical Methods for Particle Physics (3/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2012-01-01

The series of four lectures will introduce some of the important statistical methods used in Particle Physics, and should be particularly relevant to those involved in the analysis of LHC data. The lectures will include an introduction to statistical tests, parameter estimation, and the application of these tools to searches for new phenomena. Both frequentist and Bayesian methods will be described, with particular emphasis on treatment of systematic uncertainties. The lectures will also cover unfolding, that is, estimation of a distribution in binned form where the variable in question is subject to measurement errors.

Gibbs equilibrium averages and Bogolyubov measure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sankovich, D.P.

2011-01-01

Application of the functional integration methods in equilibrium statistical mechanics of quantum Bose-systems is considered. We show that Gibbs equilibrium averages of Bose-operators can be represented as path integrals over a special Gauss measure defined in the corresponding space of continuous functions. We consider some problems related to integration with respect to this measure

Thermal and statistical properties of nuclei and nuclear systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moretto, L.G.; Wozniak, G.J.

1989-07-01

The term statistical decay, statistical or thermodynamic equilibrium, thermalization, temperature, etc., have been used in nuclear physics since the introduction of the compound nucleus (CN) concept, and they are still used, perhaps even more frequently, in the context of intermediate- and high-energy heavy-ion reactions. Unfortunately, the increased popularity of these terms has not made them any clearer, and more often than not one encounters sweeping statements about the alleged statisticity of a nuclear process where the ''statistical'' connotation is a more apt description of the state of the speaker's mind than of the nuclear reaction. It is our goal, in this short set of lectures, to set at least some ideas straight on this broad and beautiful subject, on the one hand by clarifying some fundamental concepts, on the other by presenting some interesting applications to actual physical cases. 74 refs., 38 figs

A statistical physics perspective on criticality in financial markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bury, Thomas

2013-01-01

Stock markets are complex systems exhibiting collective phenomena and particular features such as synchronization, fluctuations distributed as power-laws, non-random structures and similarity to neural networks. Such specific properties suggest that markets operate at a very special point. Financial markets are believed to be critical by analogy to physical systems, but little statistically founded evidence has been given. Through a data-based methodology and comparison to simulations inspired by the statistical physics of complex systems, we show that the Dow Jones and index sets are not rigorously critical. However, financial systems are closer to criticality in the crash neighborhood. (paper)

Examples of equilibrium and non-equilibrium behavior in evolutionary systems

Science.gov (United States)

Soulier, Arne

With this thesis, we want to shed some light into the darkness of our understanding of simply defined statistical mechanics systems and the surprisingly complex dynamical behavior they exhibit. We will do so by presenting in turn one equilibrium and then one non-equilibrium system with evolutionary dynamics. In part 1, we will present the seceder-model, a newly developed system that cannot equilibrate. We will then study several properties of the system and obtain an idea of the richness of the dynamics of the seceder model, which is particular impressive given the minimal amount of modeling necessary in its setup. In part 2, we will present extensions to the directed polymer in random media problem on a hypercube and its connection to the Eigen model of evolution. Our main interest will be the influence of time-dependent and time-independent changes in the fitness landscape viewed by an evolving population. This part contains the equilibrium dynamics. The stochastic models and the topic of evolution and non-equilibrium in general will allow us to point out similarities to the various lines of thought in game theory.

Equilibrium and muscle flexibility in elderly people subjected to physiotherapeutic intervention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariane Fernandes Ribeiro

2016-09-01

Full Text Available To evaluate the equilibrium and flexibility of elderly people submitted to a training program involving physical therapy exercises. Six elderly people were selected, average age 69.66 years. Wells’s Bench and the Functional Reach Test (FRT plus Timed Up and Go Test (TUG were employed respectively to assess muscle flexibility and balance analysis. Tests were performed before and after the exercise program which consisted of thirty-five 50 min physical therapy group sessions, twice a week, with stretching exercises, gait training, active exercises, postural correction exercises and breathing exercises. Statistical analysis was done with Sigma-Stat® 3.5. Assessments occurred before and after sessions, and the final test was undertaken after 35 sessions. There was a statistically significant increase in the flexibility of the posterior muscle chain. In the TUG test, the group achieved a shorter time after treatment, with statistical significance between tests. There was a statistically significant increase in the average FRT after the sessions. Current study showed better results in the execution of tests evaluated after the program of physiotherapy activities, contributing towards the improvement of muscle flexibility and balance of elderly people.

Statistics for High Energy Physics

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2018-01-01

The lectures emphasize the frequentist approach used for Dark Matter search and the Higgs search, discovery and measurements of its properties. An emphasis is put on hypothesis test using the asymptotic formulae formalism and its derivation, and on the derivation of the trial factor formulae in one and two dimensions. Various test statistics and their applications are discussed.  Some keywords: Profile Likelihood, Neyman Pearson, Feldman Cousins, Coverage, CLs. Nuisance Parameters Impact, Look Elsewhere Effect... Selected Bibliography: G. J. Feldman and R. D. Cousins, A Unified approach to the classical statistical analysis of small signals, Phys.\\ Rev.\\ D {\\bf 57}, 3873 (1998). A. L. Read, Presentation of search results: The CL(s) technique,'' J.\\ Phys.\\ G {\\bf 28}, 2693 (2002). G. Cowan, K. Cranmer, E. Gross and O. Vitells,  Asymptotic formulae for likelihood-based tests of new physics,' Eur.\\ Phys.\\ J.\\ C {\\bf 71}, 1554 (2011) Erratum: [Eur.\\ Phys.\\ J.\\ C {\\bf 73}...

Science Academies' Refresher Course in Statistical Physics

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

The Course is aimed at college teachers of statistical physics at BSc/MSc level. It will cover basic principles and techniques, in a pedagogical manner, through lectures and tutorials, with illustrative problems. Some advanced topics, and common difficulties faced by students will also be discussed. College/University ...

The automated design of materials far from equilibrium

Science.gov (United States)

Miskin, Marc Z.

density. We examine how the results of a design process are contingent upon operating conditions by studying which shapes dissipate energy fastest in a granular gas. We even move to create optimization algorithms for the expressed purpose of material design, by integrating them with statistical mechanics. In all of these cases, we show that turning to machines puts a fresh perspective on materials far from equilibrium. By matching forms to functions, complexities become possibilities, motifs emerge that describe new physics, and the door opens to rational design.

Literature in Focus: Statistical Methods in Experimental Physics

CERN Multimedia

2007-01-01

Frederick James was a high-energy physicist who became the CERN "expert" on statistics and is now well-known around the world, in part for this famous text. The first edition of Statistical Methods in Experimental Physics was originally co-written with four other authors and was published in 1971 by North Holland (now an imprint of Elsevier). It became such an important text that demand for it has continued for more than 30 years. Fred has updated it and it was released in a second edition by World Scientific in 2006. It is still a top seller and there is no exaggeration in calling it «the» reference on the subject. A full review of the title appeared in the October CERN Courier.Come and meet the author to hear more about how this book has flourished during its 35-year lifetime. Frederick James Statistical Methods in Experimental Physics Monday, 26th of November, 4 p.m. Council Chamber (Bldg. 503-1-001) The author will be introduced...

Equilibrium models and variational inequalities

CERN Document Server

Konnov, Igor

2007-01-01

The concept of equilibrium plays a central role in various applied sciences, such as physics (especially, mechanics), economics, engineering, transportation, sociology, chemistry, biology and other fields. If one can formulate the equilibrium problem in the form of a mathematical model, solutions of the corresponding problem can be used for forecasting the future behavior of very complex systems and, also, for correcting the the current state of the system under control. This book presents a unifying look on different equilibrium concepts in economics, including several models from related sciences.- Presents a unifying look on different equilibrium concepts and also the present state of investigations in this field- Describes static and dynamic input-output models, Walras, Cassel-Wald, spatial price, auction market, oligopolistic equilibrium models, transportation and migration equilibrium models- Covers the basics of theory and solution methods both for the complementarity and variational inequality probl...

Non-equilibrium physics at a holographic chiral phase transition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Evans, Nick; Kim, Keun-young [Southampton Univ. (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy; Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics China, Beijing (China); Kalaydzhyan, Tigran; Kirsch, Ingo [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)

2010-11-15

The D3/D7 system holographically describes an N=2 gauge theory which spontaneously breaks a chiral symmetry by the formation of a quark condensate in the presence of a magnetic field. At finite temperature it displays a first order phase transition. We study out of equilibrium dynamics associated with this transition by placing probe D7 branes in a geometry describing a boost-invariant expanding or contracting plasma. We use an adiabatic approximation to track the evolution of the quark condensate in a heated system and reproduce the phase structure expected from equilibrium dynamics. We then study solutions of the full partial differential equation that describes the evolution of out of equilibrium configurations to provide a complete description of the phase transition including describing aspects of bubble formation. (orig.)

Excel 2013 for physical sciences statistics a guide to solving practical problems

CERN Document Server

Quirk, Thomas J; Horton, Howard F

2016-01-01

This book shows the capabilities of Microsoft Excel in teaching physical sciences statistics effectively. Similar to the previously published Excel 2010 for Physical Sciences Statistics, this book is a step-by-step exercise-driven guide for students and practitioners who need to master Excel to solve practical science problems. If understanding statistics isn’t your strongest suit, you are not especially mathematically-inclined, or if you are wary of computers, this is the right book for you. Excel, a widely available computer program for students and managers, is also an effective teaching and learning tool for quantitative analyses in science courses. Its powerful computational ability and graphical functions make learning statistics much easier than in years past. However, Excel 2013 for Physical Sciences Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems is the first book to capitalize on these improvements by teaching students and managers how to apply Excel to statistical techniques necessary in their ...

The Practicality of Statistical Physics Handout Based on KKNI and the Constructivist Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Sari, S. Y.; Afrizon, R.

2018-04-01

Statistical physics lecture shows that: 1) the performance of lecturers, social climate, students’ competence and soft skills needed at work are in enough category, 2) students feel difficulties in following the lectures of statistical physics because it is abstract, 3) 40.72% of students needs more understanding in the form of repetition, practice questions and structured tasks, and 4) the depth of statistical physics material needs to be improved gradually and structured. This indicates that learning materials in accordance of The Indonesian National Qualification Framework or Kerangka Kualifikasi Nasional Indonesia (KKNI) with the appropriate learning approach are needed to help lecturers and students in lectures. The author has designed statistical physics handouts which have very valid criteria (90.89%) according to expert judgment. In addition, the practical level of handouts designed also needs to be considered in order to be easy to use, interesting and efficient in lectures. The purpose of this research is to know the practical level of statistical physics handout based on KKNI and a constructivist approach. This research is a part of research and development with 4-D model developed by Thiagarajan. This research activity has reached part of development test at Development stage. Data collection took place by using a questionnaire distributed to lecturers and students. Data analysis using descriptive data analysis techniques in the form of percentage. The analysis of the questionnaire shows that the handout of statistical physics has very practical criteria. The conclusion of this study is statistical physics handouts based on the KKNI and constructivist approach have been practically used in lectures.

Statistical thermodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lim, Gyeong Hui

2008-03-01

This book consists of 15 chapters, which are basic conception and meaning of statistical thermodynamics, Maxwell-Boltzmann's statistics, ensemble, thermodynamics function and fluctuation, statistical dynamics with independent particle system, ideal molecular system, chemical equilibrium and chemical reaction rate in ideal gas mixture, classical statistical thermodynamics, ideal lattice model, lattice statistics and nonideal lattice model, imperfect gas theory on liquid, theory on solution, statistical thermodynamics of interface, statistical thermodynamics of a high molecule system and quantum statistics

Statistical physics of an anyon gas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dasnieres de Veigy, A.

1994-01-01

In quantum two-dimensional physics, anyons are particles which have an intermediate statistics between Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics. The wave amplitude can change by an arbitrary phase under particle exchanges. Contrary to bosons or fermions, the permutation group cannot uniquely characterize this phase and one must introduce the braid group. One shows that the statistical ''interaction'' is equivalent to an Aharonov-Bohm interaction which derives from a Chern-Simons lagrangian. The main subject of this thesis is the thermodynamics of an anyon gas. Since the complete spectrum of N anyons seems out of reach, we have done a perturbative computation of the equation of state at second order near Bose or Fermi statistics. One avoids ultraviolet divergences by noticing that the short-range singularities of the statistical interaction enforce the wave functions to vanish when two particles approach each other (statistical exclusion). The gas is confined in a harmonic well in order to obtain the thermodynamics limit when the harmonic attraction goes to zero. Infrared divergences thus cancel in this limit and a finite virial expansion is obtained. The complexity of the anyon model appears in this result. We have also computed the equation of state of an anyon gas in a magnetic field strong enough to project the system in its degenerate groundstate. This result concerns anyons with any statistics. One then finds an exclusion principle generalizing the Pauli principle to anyons. On the other hand, we have defined a model of two-dimensional particles topologically interacting at a distance. The anyon model is recovered as a particular case where all particles are identical. (orig.)

A Concise Introduction to the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems

CERN Document Server

Bertin, Eric

2012-01-01

This concise primer (based on lectures given at summer schools on complex systems and on a masters degree course in complex systems modeling) will provide graduate students and newcomers to the field with the basic knowledge of the concepts and methods of statistical physics and its potential for application to interdisciplinary topics.  Indeed, in recent years, statistical physics has begun to attract the interest of a broad community of researchers in the field of complex system sciences, ranging from biology to the social sciences, economics and computer science. More generally, a growing number of graduate students and researchers feel the need to learn some basic concepts and questions originating in other disciplines without necessarily having to master all of the corresponding technicalities and jargon. Generally speaking, the goals of statistical physics may be summarized as follows: on the one hand to study systems composed of a large number of interacting ‘entities’, and on the other to predict...

Quantum gases finite temperature and non-equilibrium dynamics

CERN Document Server

Szymanska, Marzena; Davis, Matthew; Gardiner, Simon

2013-01-01

The 1995 observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute atomic vapours spawned the field of ultracold, degenerate quantum gases. Unprecedented developments in experimental design and precision control have led to quantum gases becoming the preferred playground for designer quantum many-body systems. This self-contained volume provides a broad overview of the principal theoretical techniques applied to non-equilibrium and finite temperature quantum gases. Covering Bose-Einstein condensates, degenerate Fermi gases, and the more recently realised exciton-polariton condensates, it fills a gap by linking between different methods with origins in condensed matter physics, quantum field theory, quantum optics, atomic physics, and statistical mechanics. Thematically organised chapters on different methodologies, contributed by key researchers using a unified notation, provide the first integrated view of the relative merits of individual approaches, aided by pertinent introductory chapters and the guidance of ed...

Incorporation of quantum statistical features in molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohnishi, Akira; Randrup, J.

1995-01-01

We formulate a method for incorporating quantum fluctuations into molecular-dynamics simulations of many-body systems, such as those employed for energetic nuclear collision processes. Based on Fermi's Golden Rule, we allow spontaneous transitions to occur between the wave packets which are not energy eigenstates. The ensuing diffusive evolution in the space of the wave packet parameters exhibits appealing physical properties, including relaxation towards quantum-statistical equilibrium. (author)

Physics Teachers and Students: A Statistical and Historical Analysis of Women

Science.gov (United States)

Gregory, Amanda

2009-10-01

Historically, women have been denied an education comparable to that available to men. Since women have been allowed into institutions of higher learning, they have been studying and earning physics degrees. The aim of this poster is to discuss the statistical relationship between the number of women enrolled in university physics programs and the number of female physics faculty members. Special care has been given to examining the statistical data in the context of the social climate at the time that these women were teaching or pursuing their education.

Statistical properties of deep inelastic reactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moretto, L.G.

1983-08-01

The multifaceted aspects of deep-inelastic heavy-ion collisions are discussed in terms of the statistical equilibrium limit. It is shown that a conditional statistical equilibrium, where a number of degrees of freedom are thermalized while others are still relaxing, prevails in most of these reactions. The individual degrees of freedom that have been explored experimentally are considered in their statistical equilibrium limit, and the extent to which they appear to be thermalized is discussed. The interaction between degrees of freedom on their way towards equilibrium is shown to create complex feedback phenomena that may lead to self-regulation. A possible example of self-regulation is shown for the process of energy partition between fragments promoted by particle exchange. 35 references

Non-equilibrium many body dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Creutz, M.; Gyulassy, M.

1997-01-01

This Riken BNL Research Center Symposium on Non-Equilibrium Many Body Physics was held on September 23-25, 1997 as part of the official opening ceremony of the Center at Brookhaven National Lab. A major objective of theoretical work at the center is to elaborate on the full spectrum of strong interaction physics based on QCD, including the physics of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, the parton structure of hadrons and nuclei, and the phenomenology of ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions related to the up-coming experiments at RHIC. The opportunities and challenges of nuclear and particle physics in this area naturally involve aspects of the many body problem common to many other fields. The aim of this symposium was to find common theoretical threads in the area of non-equilibrium physics and modern transport theories. The program consisted of invited talks on a variety topics from the fields of atomic, condensed matter, plasma, astrophysics, cosmology, and chemistry, in addition to nuclear and particle physics. Separate abstracts have been indexed into the database for contributions to this workshop

Non-equilibrium many body dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Creutz, M.; Gyulassy, M.

1997-09-22

This Riken BNL Research Center Symposium on Non-Equilibrium Many Body Physics was held on September 23-25, 1997 as part of the official opening ceremony of the Center at Brookhaven National Lab. A major objective of theoretical work at the center is to elaborate on the full spectrum of strong interaction physics based on QCD, including the physics of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, the parton structure of hadrons and nuclei, and the phenomenology of ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions related to the up-coming experiments at RHIC. The opportunities and challenges of nuclear and particle physics in this area naturally involve aspects of the many body problem common to many other fields. The aim of this symposium was to find common theoretical threads in the area of non-equilibrium physics and modern transport theories. The program consisted of invited talks on a variety topics from the fields of atomic, condensed matter, plasma, astrophysics, cosmology, and chemistry, in addition to nuclear and particle physics. Separate abstracts have been indexed into the database for contributions to this workshop.

Thermal transport in low dimensions from statistical physics to nanoscale heat transfer

CERN Document Server

2016-01-01

Understanding non-equilibrium properties of classical and quantum many-particle systems is one of the goals of contemporary statistical mechanics. Besides its own interest for the theoretical foundations of irreversible thermodynamics(e.g. of the Fourier's law of heat conduction), this topic is also relevant to develop innovative ideas for nanoscale thermal management with possible future applications to nanotechnologies and effective energetic resources. The first part of the volume (Chapters 1-6) describes the basic models, the phenomenology and the various theoretical approaches to understand heat transport in low-dimensional lattices (1D e 2D). The methods described will include equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, hydrodynamic and kinetic approaches and the solution of stochastic models. The second part (Chapters 7-10) deals with applications to nano and microscale heat transfer, as for instance phononic transport in carbon-based nanomaterials, including the prominent case of na...

Statistical physics inspired energy-efficient coded-modulation for optical communications.

Science.gov (United States)

Djordjevic, Ivan B; Xu, Lei; Wang, Ting

2012-04-15

Because Shannon's entropy can be obtained by Stirling's approximation of thermodynamics entropy, the statistical physics energy minimization methods are directly applicable to the signal constellation design. We demonstrate that statistical physics inspired energy-efficient (EE) signal constellation designs, in combination with large-girth low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, significantly outperform conventional LDPC-coded polarization-division multiplexed quadrature amplitude modulation schemes. We also describe an EE signal constellation design algorithm. Finally, we propose the discrete-time implementation of D-dimensional transceiver and corresponding EE polarization-division multiplexed system. © 2012 Optical Society of America

Thermodynamic theory of equilibrium fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mishin, Y.

2015-01-01

The postulational basis of classical thermodynamics has been expanded to incorporate equilibrium fluctuations. The main additional elements of the proposed thermodynamic theory are the concept of quasi-equilibrium states, a definition of non-equilibrium entropy, a fundamental equation of state in the entropy representation, and a fluctuation postulate describing the probability distribution of macroscopic parameters of an isolated system. Although these elements introduce a statistical component that does not exist in classical thermodynamics, the logical structure of the theory is different from that of statistical mechanics and represents an expanded version of thermodynamics. Based on this theory, we present a regular procedure for calculations of equilibrium fluctuations of extensive parameters, intensive parameters and densities in systems with any number of fluctuating parameters. The proposed fluctuation formalism is demonstrated by four applications: (1) derivation of the complete set of fluctuation relations for a simple fluid in three different ensembles; (2) fluctuations in finite-reservoir systems interpolating between the canonical and micro-canonical ensembles; (3) derivation of fluctuation relations for excess properties of grain boundaries in binary solid solutions, and (4) derivation of the grain boundary width distribution for pre-melted grain boundaries in alloys. The last two applications offer an efficient fluctuation-based approach to calculations of interface excess properties and extraction of the disjoining potential in pre-melted grain boundaries. Possible future extensions of the theory are outlined.

Excel 2016 for physical sciences statistics a guide to solving practical problems

CERN Document Server

Quirk, Thomas J; Horton, Howard F

2016-01-01

This book is a step-by-step exercise-driven guide for students and practitioners who need to master Excel to solve practical physical science problems. If understanding statistics isn’t your strongest suit, you are not especially mathematically-inclined, or if you are wary of computers, this is the right book for you. Excel is an effective learning tool for quantitative analyses in environmental science courses. Its powerful computational ability and graphical functions make learning statistics much easier than in years past. However, Excel 2016 for Physical Sciences Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems is the first book to capitalize on these improvements by teaching students and managers how to apply Excel 2016 to statistical techniques necessary in their courses and work. Each chapter explains statistical formulas and directs the reader to use Excel commands to solve specific, easy-to-understand physical science problems. Practice problems are provided at the end of each chapter with their s...

New Directions in Statistical Physics: Econophysics, Bioinformatics, and Pattern Recognition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grassberger, P

2004-01-01

This book contains 18 contributions from different authors. Its subtitle 'Econophysics, Bioinformatics, and Pattern Recognition' says more precisely what it is about: not so much about central problems of conventional statistical physics like equilibrium phase transitions and critical phenomena, but about its interdisciplinary applications. After a long period of specialization, physicists have, over the last few decades, found more and more satisfaction in breaking out of the limitations set by the traditional classification of sciences. Indeed, this classification had never been strict, and physicists in particular had always ventured into other fields. Helmholtz, in the middle of the 19th century, had considered himself a physicist when working on physiology, stressing that the physics of animate nature is as much a legitimate field of activity as the physics of inanimate nature. Later, Max Delbrueck and Francis Crick did for experimental biology what Schroedinger did for its theoretical foundation. And many of the experimental techniques used in chemistry, biology, and medicine were developed by a steady stream of talented physicists who left their proper discipline to venture out into the wider world of science. The development we have witnessed over the last thirty years or so is different. It started with neural networks where methods could be applied which had been developed for spin glasses, but todays list includes vehicular traffic (driven lattice gases), geology (self-organized criticality), economy (fractal stochastic processes and large scale simulations), engineering (dynamical chaos), and many others. By staying in the physics departments, these activities have transformed the physics curriculum and the view physicists have of themselves. In many departments there are now courses on econophysics or on biological physics, and some universities offer degrees in the physics of traffic or in econophysics. In order to document this change of attitude

Non-equilibrium phase transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mottola, E.; Cooper, F.M.; Bishop, A.R.; Habib, S.; Kluger, Y.; Jensen, N.G.

1998-01-01

This is the final report of a one-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Non-equilibrium phase transitions play a central role in a very broad range of scientific areas, ranging from nuclear, particle, and astrophysics to condensed matter physics and the material and biological sciences. The aim of this project was to explore the path to a deeper and more fundamental understanding of the common physical principles underlying the complex real time dynamics of phase transitions. The main emphasis was on the development of general theoretical tools to deal with non-equilibrium processes, and of numerical methods robust enough to capture the time-evolving structures that occur in actual experimental situations. Specific applications to Laboratory multidivisional efforts in relativistic heavy-ion physics (transition to a new phase of nuclear matter consisting of a quark-gluon plasma) and layered high-temperature superconductors (critical currents and flux flow at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory) were undertaken

Physical entropy, information entropy and their evolution equations

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2001-01-01

Inspired by the evolution equation of nonequilibrium statistical physics entropy and the concise statistical formula of the entropy production rate, we develop a theory of the dynamic information entropy and build a nonlinear evolution equation of the information entropy density changing in time and state variable space. Its mathematical form and physical meaning are similar to the evolution equation of the physical entropy: The time rate of change of information entropy density originates together from drift, diffusion and production. The concise statistical formula of information entropy production rate is similar to that of physical entropy also. Furthermore, we study the similarity and difference between physical entropy and information entropy and the possible unification of the two statistical entropies, and discuss the relationship among the principle of entropy increase, the principle of equilibrium maximum entropy and the principle of maximum information entropy as well as the connection between them and the entropy evolution equation.

Thermodynamic evolution far from equilibrium

Science.gov (United States)

Khantuleva, Tatiana A.

2018-05-01

The presented model of thermodynamic evolution of an open system far from equilibrium is based on the modern results of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, the nonlocal theory of nonequilibrium transport developed by the author and the Speed Gradient principle introduced in the theory of adaptive control. Transition to a description of the system internal structure evolution at the mesoscopic level allows a new insight at the stability problem of non-equilibrium processes. The new model is used in a number of specific tasks.

Utilization of a Microcomputer for the Study of an Iodine Oxidation and Equilibrium Reaction: A Physical Chemistry Experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Julien, L. M.

1984-01-01

Describes a physical chemistry experiment which incorporates the use of a microcomputer to enhance understanding of combined kinetic and equilibrium phenomena, to increase experimental capabilities when working with large numbers of students and limited equipment, and for the student to develop a better understanding of experimental design. (JN)

Principles of classical statistical mechanics: A perspective from the notion of complementarity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velazquez Abad, Luisberis

2012-01-01

Quantum mechanics and classical statistical mechanics are two physical theories that share several analogies in their mathematical apparatus and physical foundations. In particular, classical statistical mechanics is hallmarked by the complementarity between two descriptions that are unified in thermodynamics: (i) the parametrization of the system macrostate in terms of mechanical macroscopic observablesI=(I i ), and (ii) the dynamical description that explains the evolution of a system towards the thermodynamic equilibrium. As expected, such a complementarity is related to the uncertainty relations of classical statistical mechanics ΔI i Δη i ≥k. Here, k is the Boltzmann constant, η i =∂S(I|θ)/∂I i are the restituting generalized forces derived from the entropy S(I|θ) of a closed system, which is found in an equilibrium situation driven by certain control parameters θ=(θ α ). These arguments constitute the central ingredients of a reformulation of classical statistical mechanics from the notion of complementarity. In this new framework, Einstein postulate of classical fluctuation theory dp(I|θ)∼exp[S(I|θ)/k]dI appears as the correspondence principle between classical statistical mechanics and thermodynamics in the limit k→0, while the existence of uncertainty relations can be associated with the non-commuting character of certain operators. - Highlights: ► There exists a direct analogy between quantum and classical statistical mechanics. ► Statistical form of Le Chatellier principle leads to the uncertainty principle. ► Einstein postulate is simply the correspondence principle. ► Complementary quantities are associated with non-commuting operators.

Statistical physics of crime: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

D'Orsogna, Maria R; Perc, Matjaž

2015-03-01

Containing the spread of crime in urban societies remains a major challenge. Empirical evidence suggests that, if left unchecked, crimes may be recurrent and proliferate. On the other hand, eradicating a culture of crime may be difficult, especially under extreme social circumstances that impair the creation of a shared sense of social responsibility. Although our understanding of the mechanisms that drive the emergence and diffusion of crime is still incomplete, recent research highlights applied mathematics and methods of statistical physics as valuable theoretical resources that may help us better understand criminal activity. We review different approaches aimed at modeling and improving our understanding of crime, focusing on the nucleation of crime hotspots using partial differential equations, self-exciting point process and agent-based modeling, adversarial evolutionary games, and the network science behind the formation of gangs and large-scale organized crime. We emphasize that statistical physics of crime can relevantly inform the design of successful crime prevention strategies, as well as improve the accuracy of expectations about how different policing interventions should impact malicious human activity that deviates from social norms. We also outline possible directions for future research, related to the effects of social and coevolving networks and to the hierarchical growth of criminal structures due to self-organization. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Conference: Statistical Physics and Biological Information; F

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gross, David J.; Hwa, Terence

2001-01-01

In the spring of 2001, the Institute for Theoretical Physics ran a 6 month scientific program on Statistical Physics and Biological Information. This program was organized by Walter Fitch (UC Irvine), Terence Hwa (UC San Diego), Luca Peliti (University Federico II), Naples Gary Stormo (Washington University School of Medicine) and Chao Tang (NEC). Overall scientific supervision was provided by David Gross, Director, ITP. The ITP has an online conference/program proceeding which consists of audio and transparencies of almost all of the talks held during this program. Over 100 talks are available on the site at http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/infobio01/

Analysis of non-equilibrium phenomena in inductively coupled plasma generators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, W.; Panesi, M., E-mail: mpanesi@illinois.edu [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61822 (United States); Lani, A. [Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-Saint-Genèse (Belgium)

2016-07-15

This work addresses the modeling of non-equilibrium phenomena in inductively coupled plasma discharges. In the proposed computational model, the electromagnetic induction equation is solved together with the set of Navier-Stokes equations in order to compute the electromagnetic and flow fields, accounting for their mutual interaction. Semi-classical statistical thermodynamics is used to determine the plasma thermodynamic properties, while transport properties are obtained from kinetic principles, with the method of Chapman and Enskog. Particle ambipolar diffusive fluxes are found by solving the Stefan-Maxwell equations with a simple iterative method. Two physico-mathematical formulations are used to model the chemical reaction processes: (1) A Local Thermodynamics Equilibrium (LTE) formulation and (2) a thermo-chemical non-equilibrium (TCNEQ) formulation. In the TCNEQ model, thermal non-equilibrium between the translational energy mode of the gas and the vibrational energy mode of individual molecules is accounted for. The electronic states of the chemical species are assumed in equilibrium with the vibrational temperature, whereas the rotational energy mode is assumed to be equilibrated with translation. Three different physical models are used to account for the coupling of chemistry and energy transfer processes. Numerical simulations obtained with the LTE and TCNEQ formulations are used to characterize the extent of non-equilibrium of the flow inside the Plasmatron facility at the von Karman Institute. Each model was tested using different kinetic mechanisms to assess the sensitivity of the results to variations in the reaction parameters. A comparison of temperatures and composition profiles at the outlet of the torch demonstrates that the flow is in non-equilibrium for operating conditions characterized by pressures below 30 000 Pa, frequency 0.37 MHz, input power 80 kW, and mass flow 8 g/s.

Non-Equilibrium Properties from Equilibrium Free Energy Calculations

Science.gov (United States)

Pohorille, Andrew; Wilson, Michael A.

2012-01-01

Calculating free energy in computer simulations is of central importance in statistical mechanics of condensed media and its applications to chemistry and biology not only because it is the most comprehensive and informative quantity that characterizes the eqUilibrium state, but also because it often provides an efficient route to access dynamic and kinetic properties of a system. Most of applications of equilibrium free energy calculations to non-equilibrium processes rely on a description in which a molecule or an ion diffuses in the potential of mean force. In general case this description is a simplification, but it might be satisfactorily accurate in many instances of practical interest. This hypothesis has been tested in the example of the electrodiffusion equation . Conductance of model ion channels has been calculated directly through counting the number of ion crossing events observed during long molecular dynamics simulations and has been compared with the conductance obtained from solving the generalized Nernst-Plank equation. It has been shown that under relatively modest conditions the agreement between these two approaches is excellent, thus demonstrating the assumptions underlying the diffusion equation are fulfilled. Under these conditions the electrodiffusion equation provides an efficient approach to calculating the full voltage-current dependence routinely measured in electrophysiological experiments.

Equilibrium and off-equilibrium trap-size scaling in one-dimensional ultracold bosonic gases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campostrini, Massimo; Vicari, Ettore

2010-01-01

We study some aspects of equilibrium and off-equilibrium quantum dynamics of dilute bosonic gases in the presence of a trapping potential. We consider systems with a fixed number of particles and study their scaling behavior with increasing the trap size. We focus on one-dimensional bosonic systems, such as gases described by the Lieb-Liniger model and its Tonks-Girardeau limit of impenetrable bosons, and gases constrained in optical lattices as described by the Bose-Hubbard model. We study their quantum (zero-temperature) behavior at equilibrium and off equilibrium during the unitary time evolution arising from changes of the trapping potential, which may be instantaneous or described by a power-law time dependence, starting from the equilibrium ground state for an initial trap size. Renormalization-group scaling arguments and analytical and numerical calculations show that the trap-size dependence of the equilibrium and off-equilibrium dynamics can be cast in the form of a trap-size scaling in the low-density regime, characterized by universal power laws of the trap size, in dilute gases with repulsive contact interactions and lattice systems described by the Bose-Hubbard model. The scaling functions corresponding to several physically interesting observables are computed. Our results are of experimental relevance for systems of cold atomic gases trapped by tunable confining potentials.

Cosolutes effects on aqueous two-phase systems equilibrium formation studied by physical approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Bertoluzzo, M Guadalupe; Rigatuso, Rubén; Farruggia, Beatriz; Nerli, Bibiana; Picó, Guillermo

2007-10-01

The effect of urea and sodium salts of monovalent halides on the aqueous polyethyleneglycol solution and binodal diagrams of polyethyleneglycol-potassium phosphate (polyethyleneglycol of molecular mass 1500, 4000, 6000 and 8000) were studied using different physical approaches. The effect of these solutes on the binodal diagram for polyethyleneglycol-potassium phosphate was also investigated. The cosolutes affected in a significant manner the water structured around the ethylene chain of polyethyleneglycol inducing a lost of this. The equilibrium curves for the aqueous two-phase systems were fitting very well by a sigmoidal function with two parameters, which are closely related with the cosolute structure making or breaking capacity on the water ordered.

Para-equilibrium phase diagrams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pelton, Arthur D.; Koukkari, Pertti; Pajarre, Risto; Eriksson, Gunnar

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A rapidly cooled system may attain a state of para-equilibrium. • In this state rapidly diffusing elements reach equilibrium but others are immobile. • Application of the Phase Rule to para-equilibrium phase diagrams is discussed. • A general algorithm to calculate para-equilibrium phase diagrams is described. - Abstract: If an initially homogeneous system at high temperature is rapidly cooled, a temporary para-equilibrium state may result in which rapidly diffusing elements have reached equilibrium but more slowly diffusing elements have remained essentially immobile. The best known example occurs when homogeneous austenite is quenched. A para-equilibrium phase assemblage may be calculated thermodynamically by Gibbs free energy minimization under the constraint that the ratios of the slowly diffusing elements are the same in all phases. Several examples of calculated para-equilibrium phase diagram sections are presented and the application of the Phase Rule is discussed. Although the rules governing the geometry of these diagrams may appear at first to be somewhat different from those for full equilibrium phase diagrams, it is shown that in fact they obey exactly the same rules with the following provision. Since the molar ratios of non-diffusing elements are the same in all phases at para-equilibrium, these ratios act, as far as the geometry of the diagram is concerned, like “potential” variables (such as T, pressure or chemical potentials) rather than like “normal” composition variables which need not be the same in all phases. A general algorithm to calculate para-equilibrium phase diagrams is presented. In the limit, if a para-equilibrium calculation is performed under the constraint that no elements diffuse, then the resultant phase diagram shows the single phase with the minimum Gibbs free energy at any point on the diagram; such calculations are of interest in physical vapor deposition when deposition is so rapid that phase

Information-theoretic equilibrium and observable thermalization

Science.gov (United States)

Anzà, F.; Vedral, V.

2017-03-01

A crucial point in statistical mechanics is the definition of the notion of thermal equilibrium, which can be given as the state that maximises the von Neumann entropy, under the validity of some constraints. Arguing that such a notion can never be experimentally probed, in this paper we propose a new notion of thermal equilibrium, focused on observables rather than on the full state of the quantum system. We characterise such notion of thermal equilibrium for an arbitrary observable via the maximisation of its Shannon entropy and we bring to light the thermal properties that it heralds. The relation with Gibbs ensembles is studied and understood. We apply such a notion of equilibrium to a closed quantum system and show that there is always a class of observables which exhibits thermal equilibrium properties and we give a recipe to explicitly construct them. Eventually, an intimate connection with the Eigenstate Thermalisation Hypothesis is brought to light.

The equilibrium response to doubling atmospheric CO2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mitchell, J.F.B.

1990-01-01

The equilibrium response of climate to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide as simulated by general circulation models is assessed. Changes that are physically plausible are summarized, along with an indication of the confidence attributable to those changes. The main areas of uncertainty are highlighted. They include: equilibrium experiments with mixed-layer oceans focusing on temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture; equilibrium studies with dynamical ocean-atmosphere models; results deduced from equilibrium CO 2 experiments; and priorities for future research to improve atmosphere models

Numerical Verification Of Equilibrium Chemistry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piro, Markus; Lewis, Brent; Thompson, William T.; Simunovic, Srdjan; Besmann, Theodore M.

2010-01-01

A numerical tool is in an advanced state of development to compute the equilibrium compositions of phases and their proportions in multi-component systems of importance to the nuclear industry. The resulting software is being conceived for direct integration into large multi-physics fuel performance codes, particularly for providing boundary conditions in heat and mass transport modules. However, any numerical errors produced in equilibrium chemistry computations will be propagated in subsequent heat and mass transport calculations, thus falsely predicting nuclear fuel behaviour. The necessity for a reliable method to numerically verify chemical equilibrium computations is emphasized by the requirement to handle the very large number of elements necessary to capture the entire fission product inventory. A simple, reliable and comprehensive numerical verification method is presented which can be invoked by any equilibrium chemistry solver for quality assurance purposes.

Quantum theoretical physics is statistical and relativistic

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harding, C.

1980-01-01

A new theoretical framework for the quantum mechanism is presented. It is based on a strict deterministic behavior of single systems. The conventional QM equation, however, is found to describe statistical results of many classical systems. It will be seen, moreover, that a rigorous synthesis of our theory requires relativistic kinematics. So, QM is not only a classical statistical theory, it is, of necessity, a relativistic theory. The equation of the theory does not just duplicate QM, it indicates an inherent nonlinearity in QM which is subject to experimental verification. It is shown, therefore, that conventional QM is a corollary of classical deterministic principles. It is suggested that this concept of nature conflicts with that prevalent in modern physics. (author)

The Physics of Semiconductors

Science.gov (United States)

Brennan, Kevin F.

1999-02-01

Modern fabrication techniques have made it possible to produce semiconductor devices whose dimensions are so small that quantum mechanical effects dominate their behavior. This book describes the key elements of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and solid-state physics that are necessary in understanding these modern semiconductor devices. The author begins with a review of elementary quantum mechanics, and then describes more advanced topics, such as multiple quantum wells. He then disusses equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Following this introduction, he provides a thorough treatment of solid-state physics, covering electron motion in periodic potentials, electron-phonon interaction, and recombination processes. The final four chapters deal exclusively with real devices, such as semiconductor lasers, photodiodes, flat panel displays, and MOSFETs. The book contains many homework exercises and is suitable as a textbook for electrical engineering, materials science, or physics students taking courses in solid-state device physics. It will also be a valuable reference for practicing engineers in optoelectronics and related areas.

Classical Methods of Statistics With Applications in Fusion-Oriented Plasma Physics

CERN Document Server

Kardaun, Otto J W F

2005-01-01

Classical Methods of Statistics is a blend of theory and practical statistical methods written for graduate students and researchers interested in applications to plasma physics and its experimental aspects. It can also fruitfully be used by students majoring in probability theory and statistics. In the first part, the mathematical framework and some of the history of the subject are described. Many exercises help readers to understand the underlying concepts. In the second part, two case studies are presented exemplifying discriminant analysis and multivariate profile analysis. The introductions of these case studies outline contextual magnetic plasma fusion research. In the third part, an overview of statistical software is given and, in particular, SAS and S-PLUS are discussed. In the last chapter, several datasets with guided exercises, predominantly from the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak, are included and their physical background is concisely described. The book concludes with a list of essential keyword transl...

Hanging an Airplane: A Case Study in Static Equilibrium

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, Debora M.

2009-01-01

Our classrooms are filled with engineering majors who take a semester-long course in static equilibrium. Many students find this class too challenging and drop their engineering major. In our introductory physics class, we often breeze through static equilibrium; to physicists equilibrium is just a special case of Newton's second law. While it is…

Hunting Solomonoff's Swans: Exploring the Boundary Between Physics and Statistics in Hydrological Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Nearing, G. S.

2014-12-01

Statistical models consistently out-perform conceptual models in the short term, however to account for a nonstationary future (or an unobserved past) scientists prefer to base predictions on unchanging and commutable properties of the universe - i.e., physics. The problem with physically-based hydrology models is, of course, that they aren't really based on physics - they are based on statistical approximations of physical interactions, and we almost uniformly lack an understanding of the entropy associated with these approximations. Thermodynamics is successful precisely because entropy statistics are computable for homogeneous (well-mixed) systems, and ergodic arguments explain the success of Newton's laws to describe systems that are fundamentally quantum in nature. Unfortunately, similar arguments do not hold for systems like watersheds that are heterogeneous at a wide range of scales. Ray Solomonoff formalized the situation in 1968 by showing that given infinite evidence, simultaneously minimizing model complexity and entropy in predictions always leads to the best possible model. The open question in hydrology is about what happens when we don't have infinite evidence - for example, when the future will not look like the past, or when one watershed does not behave like another. How do we isolate stationary and commutable components of watershed behavior? I propose that one possible answer to this dilemma lies in a formal combination of physics and statistics. In this talk I outline my recent analogue (Solomonoff's theorem was digital) of Solomonoff's idea that allows us to quantify the complexity/entropy tradeoff in a way that is intuitive to physical scientists. I show how to formally combine "physical" and statistical methods for model development in a way that allows us to derive the theoretically best possible model given any given physics approximation(s) and available observations. Finally, I apply an analogue of Solomonoff's theorem to evaluate the

A statistical mechanical interpretation of algorithmic information theory: Total statistical mechanical interpretation based on physical argument

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tadaki, Kohtaro

2010-01-01

The statistical mechanical interpretation of algorithmic information theory (AIT, for short) was introduced and developed by our former works [K. Tadaki, Local Proceedings of CiE 2008, pp. 425-434, 2008] and [K. Tadaki, Proceedings of LFCS'09, Springer's LNCS, vol. 5407, pp. 422-440, 2009], where we introduced the notion of thermodynamic quantities, such as partition function Z(T), free energy F(T), energy E(T), statistical mechanical entropy S(T), and specific heat C(T), into AIT. We then discovered that, in the interpretation, the temperature T equals to the partial randomness of the values of all these thermodynamic quantities, where the notion of partial randomness is a stronger representation of the compression rate by means of program-size complexity. Furthermore, we showed that this situation holds for the temperature T itself, which is one of the most typical thermodynamic quantities. Namely, we showed that, for each of the thermodynamic quantities Z(T), F(T), E(T), and S(T) above, the computability of its value at temperature T gives a sufficient condition for T is an element of (0,1) to satisfy the condition that the partial randomness of T equals to T. In this paper, based on a physical argument on the same level of mathematical strictness as normal statistical mechanics in physics, we develop a total statistical mechanical interpretation of AIT which actualizes a perfect correspondence to normal statistical mechanics. We do this by identifying a microcanonical ensemble in the framework of AIT. As a result, we clarify the statistical mechanical meaning of the thermodynamic quantities of AIT.

Multiscale measures of equilibrium on finite dynamic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bigerelle, M.; Iost, A.

2004-01-01

This article presents a new method for the study of the evolution of dynamic systems based on the notion of quantity of information. The system is divided into elementary cells and the quantity of information is studied with respect to the cell size. We have introduced an analogy between quantity of information and entropy, and defined the intrinsic entropy as the entropy of the whole system independent of the size of the cells. It is shown that the intrinsic entropy follows a Gaussian probability density function (PDF) and thereafter, the time needed by the system to reach equilibrium is a random variable. For a finite system, statistical analyses show that this entropy converges to a state of equilibrium and an algorithmic method is proposed to quantify the time needed to reach equilibrium for a given confidence interval level. A Monte-Carlo simulation of diffusion of A* atoms in A is then provided to illustrate the proposed simulation. It follows that the time to reach equilibrium for a constant error probability, t e , depends on the number, n, of elementary cells as: t e ∝n 2.22 ±0.06 . For an infinite system size (n infinite), the intrinsic entropy obtained by statistical modelling is a pertinent characteristic number of the system at the equilibrium

A study of complex particle emission in the pre-equilibrium statistical model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miao Rongzhi; Wu Guohua

1986-01-01

A concept of the quasi-composite system in the process of the pre-equilibrium emission is presented in this paper. On the basis of the principle of detailed balance, the existence of the factor, [γ β ω(π β , 0, ν β , 0, E-U)g π,ν ], has been proved with an account of the distinguishabllity between protons and neutrons. A formula for the rate of the complex particle emission in the pre-equilibrium process can be obtained. The theoretical calculation results fit the experimental data quite well, especially in the high energy part of the energy spectrum the agreement are much better than ever before

Non-equilibrium umbrella sampling applied to force spectroscopy of soft matter.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Y X; Wang, G M; Williams, D R M; Williams, Stephen R; Evans, Denis J; Sevick, E M

2012-02-07

Physical systems often respond on a timescale which is longer than that of the measurement. This is particularly true in soft matter where direct experimental measurement, for example in force spectroscopy, drives the soft system out of equilibrium and provides a non-equilibrium measure. Here we demonstrate experimentally for the first time that equilibrium physical quantities (such as the mean square displacement) can be obtained from non-equilibrium measurements via umbrella sampling. Our model experimental system is a bead fluctuating in a time-varying optical trap. We also show this for simulated force spectroscopy on a complex soft molecule--a piston-rotaxane.

Non-equilibrium dynamics of open systems and fluctuation-dissipation theorems

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Špička, Václav; Velický, B.; Kalvová, Anděla

2017-01-01

Roč. 65, 6-8 (2017), s. 1-23, č. článku 1700032. ISSN 0015-8208 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : non-equilibrium * fluctuation-dissipation theorems * non-equilibrium Greens function * transient and steady state magnetic current * molecular bridge Subject RIV: BE - Theoretical Physics OBOR OECD: Atomic, molecular and chemical physics ( physics of atoms and molecules including collision, interaction with radiation, magnetic resonances, Mössbauer effect) Impact factor: 2.434, year: 2016

Equilibrium distribution function in collisionless systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pergamenshchik, V.M.

1988-01-01

Collisionless systems of a large number of N particles interacting by Coulomb forces are widely spread in cosmic and laboratory plasma. A statistical theory of equilibrium state of collisionless Coulomb systems which evolution obeys Vlasov equation is proposed. The developed formalism permits a sequential consideration of such distributed in one-particle six-dimensional phase space of a system and to obtain a simple result: equilibrium distribution function has the form of Fermi-Dirac distribution and doesn't depend on initial state factors

Statistical Physics in the Era of Big Data

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Dashun

2013-01-01

With the wealth of data provided by a wide range of high-throughout measurement tools and technologies, statistical physics of complex systems is entering a new phase, impacting in a meaningful fashion a wide range of fields, from cell biology to computer science to economics. In this dissertation, by applying tools and techniques developed in…

Statistical physics of interacting neural networks

Science.gov (United States)

Kinzel, Wolfgang; Metzler, Richard; Kanter, Ido

2001-12-01

Recent results on the statistical physics of time series generation and prediction are presented. A neural network is trained on quasi-periodic and chaotic sequences and overlaps to the sequence generator as well as the prediction errors are calculated numerically. For each network there exists a sequence for which it completely fails to make predictions. Two interacting networks show a transition to perfect synchronization. A pool of interacting networks shows good coordination in the minority game-a model of competition in a closed market. Finally, as a demonstration, a perceptron predicts bit sequences produced by human beings.

Far-from-Equilibrium Route to Superthermal Light in Bimodal Nanolasers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mathias Marconi

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Microscale and nanoscale lasers inherently exhibit rich photon statistics due to complex light-matter interaction in a strong spontaneous emission noise background. It is well known that they may display superthermal fluctuations—photon superbunching—in specific situations due to either gain competition, leading to mode-switching instabilities, or carrier-carrier coupling in superradiant microcavities. Here we show a generic route to superbunching in bimodal nanolasers by preparing the system far from equilibrium through a parameter quench. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that transient dynamics after a short-pump-pulse-induced quench leads to heavy-tailed superthermal statistics when projected onto the weak mode. We implement a simple experimental technique to access the probability density functions that further enables quantifying the distance from thermal equilibrium via the thermodynamic entropy. The universality of this mechanism relies on the far-from-equilibrium dynamical scenario, which can be mapped to a fast cooling process of a suspension of Brownian particles in a liquid. Our results open up new avenues to mold photon statistics in multimode optical systems and may constitute a test bed to investigate out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics using micro or nanocavity arrays.

Far-from-Equilibrium Route to Superthermal Light in Bimodal Nanolasers

Science.gov (United States)

Marconi, Mathias; Javaloyes, Julien; Hamel, Philippe; Raineri, Fabrice; Levenson, Ariel; Yacomotti, Alejandro M.

2018-02-01

Microscale and nanoscale lasers inherently exhibit rich photon statistics due to complex light-matter interaction in a strong spontaneous emission noise background. It is well known that they may display superthermal fluctuations—photon superbunching—in specific situations due to either gain competition, leading to mode-switching instabilities, or carrier-carrier coupling in superradiant microcavities. Here we show a generic route to superbunching in bimodal nanolasers by preparing the system far from equilibrium through a parameter quench. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that transient dynamics after a short-pump-pulse-induced quench leads to heavy-tailed superthermal statistics when projected onto the weak mode. We implement a simple experimental technique to access the probability density functions that further enables quantifying the distance from thermal equilibrium via the thermodynamic entropy. The universality of this mechanism relies on the far-from-equilibrium dynamical scenario, which can be mapped to a fast cooling process of a suspension of Brownian particles in a liquid. Our results open up new avenues to mold photon statistics in multimode optical systems and may constitute a test bed to investigate out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics using micro or nanocavity arrays.

An introduction to equilibrium thermodynamics

CERN Document Server

Morrill, Bernard; Hartnett, James P; Hughes, William F

1973-01-01

An Introduction to Equilibrium Thermodynamics discusses classical thermodynamics and irreversible thermodynamics. It introduces the laws of thermodynamics and the connection between statistical concepts and observable macroscopic properties of a thermodynamic system. Chapter 1 discusses the first law of thermodynamics while Chapters 2 through 4 deal with statistical concepts. The succeeding chapters describe the link between entropy and the reversible heat process concept of entropy; the second law of thermodynamics; Legendre transformations and Jacobian algebra. Finally, Chapter 10 provides a

The equilibrium of neural firing: A mathematical theory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lan, Sizhong, E-mail: lsz@fuyunresearch.org [Fuyun Research, Beijing, 100055 (China)

2014-12-15

Inspired by statistical thermodynamics, we presume that neuron system has equilibrium condition with respect to neural firing. We show that, even with dynamically changeable neural connections, it is inevitable for neural firing to evolve to equilibrium. To study the dynamics between neural firing and neural connections, we propose an extended communication system where noisy channel has the tendency towards fixed point, implying that neural connections are always attracted into fixed points such that equilibrium can be reached. The extended communication system and its mathematics could be useful back in thermodynamics.

Statistical Physics, Optimization, Inference, and Message-Passing Algorithms : Lecture Notes of the Les Houches School of Physics : Special Issue, October 2013

CERN Document Server

Ricci-Tersenghi, Federico; Zdeborova, Lenka; Zecchina, Riccardo; Tramel, Eric W; Cugliandolo, Leticia F

2015-01-01

This book contains a collection of the presentations that were given in October 2013 at the Les Houches Autumn School on statistical physics, optimization, inference, and message-passing algorithms. In the last decade, there has been increasing convergence of interest and methods between theoretical physics and fields as diverse as probability, machine learning, optimization, and inference problems. In particular, much theoretical and applied work in statistical physics and computer science has relied on the use of message-passing algorithms and their connection to the statistical physics of glasses and spin glasses. For example, both the replica and cavity methods have led to recent advances in compressed sensing, sparse estimation, and random constraint satisfaction, to name a few. This book’s detailed pedagogical lectures on statistical inference, computational complexity, the replica and cavity methods, and belief propagation are aimed particularly at PhD students, post-docs, and young researchers desir...

Monte Carlo Simulation in Statistical Physics An Introduction

CERN Document Server

Binder, Kurt

2010-01-01

Monte Carlo Simulation in Statistical Physics deals with the computer simulation of many-body systems in condensed-matter physics and related fields of physics, chemistry and beyond, to traffic flows, stock market fluctuations, etc.). Using random numbers generated by a computer, probability distributions are calculated, allowing the estimation of the thermodynamic properties of various systems. This book describes the theoretical background to several variants of these Monte Carlo methods and gives a systematic presentation from which newcomers can learn to perform such simulations and to analyze their results. The fifth edition covers Classical as well as Quantum Monte Carlo methods. Furthermore a new chapter on the sampling of free-energy landscapes has been added. To help students in their work a special web server has been installed to host programs and discussion groups (http://wwwcp.tphys.uni-heidelberg.de). Prof. Binder was awarded the Berni J. Alder CECAM Award for Computational Physics 2001 as well ...

Introductory statistical mechanics for electron storage rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jowett, J.M.

1986-07-01

These lectures introduce the beam dynamics of electron-positron storage rings with particular emphasis on the effects due to synchrotron radiation. They differ from most other introductions in their systematic use of the physical principles and mathematical techniques of the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of fluctuating dynamical systems. A self-contained exposition of the necessary topics from this field is included. Throughout the development, a Hamiltonian description of the effects of the externally applied fields is maintained in order to preserve the links with other lectures on beam dynamics and to show clearly the extent to which electron dynamics in non-Hamiltonian. The statistical mechanical framework is extended to a discussion of the conceptual foundations of the treatment of collective effects through the Vlasov equation

Equilibrium reconstruction in the TCA/Br tokamak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sa, Wanderley Pires de

1996-01-01

The accurate and rapid determination of the Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium configuration in tokamaks is a subject for the magnetic confinement of the plasma. With the knowledge of characteristic plasma MHD equilibrium parameters it is possible to control the plasma position during its formation using feed-back techniques. It is also necessary an on-line analysis between successive discharges to program external parameters for the subsequent discharges. In this work it is investigated the MHD equilibrium configuration reconstruction of the TCA/BR tokamak from external magnetic measurements, using a method that is able to fast determine the main parameters of discharge. The thesis has two parts. Firstly it is presented the development of an equilibrium code that solves de Grad-Shafranov equation for the TCA/BR tokamak geometry. Secondly it is presented the MHD equilibrium reconstruction process from external magnetic field and flux measurements using the Function Parametrization FP method. this method. This method is based on the statistical analysis of a database of simulated equilibrium configurations, with the goal of obtaining a simple relationship between the parameters that characterize the equilibrium and the measurements. The results from FP are compared with conventional methods. (author)

Stochastic linearization of turbulent dynamics of dispersive waves in equilibrium and non-equilibrium state

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiang, Shixiao W; Lu, Haihao; Zhou, Douglas; Cai, David

2016-01-01

Characterizing dispersive wave turbulence in the long time dynamics is central to understanding of many natural phenomena, e.g., in atmosphere ocean dynamics, nonlinear optics, and plasma physics. Using the β -Fermi–Pasta–Ulam nonlinear system as a prototypical example, we show that in thermal equilibrium and non-equilibrium steady state the turbulent state even in the strongly nonlinear regime possesses an effective linear stochastic structure in renormalized normal variables. In this framework, we can well characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics, which are dominated by long-wavelength renormalized waves. We further demonstrate that the energy flux is nearly saturated by the long-wavelength renormalized waves in non-equilibrium steady state. The scenario of such effective linear stochastic dynamics can be extended to study turbulent states in other nonlinear wave systems. (paper)

Advanced statistics to improve the physical interpretation of atomization processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Panão, Miguel R.O.; Radu, Lucian

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Finite pdf mixtures improves physical interpretation of sprays. ► Bayesian approach using MCMC algorithm is used to find the best finite mixture. ► Statistical method identifies multiple droplet clusters in a spray. ► Multiple drop clusters eventually associated with multiple atomization mechanisms. ► Spray described by drop size distribution and not only its moments. -- Abstract: This paper reports an analysis of the physics of atomization processes using advanced statistical tools. Namely, finite mixtures of probability density functions, which best fitting is found using a Bayesian approach based on a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. This approach takes into account eventual multimodality and heterogeneities in drop size distributions. Therefore, it provides information about the complete probability density function of multimodal drop size distributions and allows the identification of subgroups in the heterogeneous data. This allows improving the physical interpretation of atomization processes. Moreover, it also overcomes the limitations induced by analyzing the spray droplets characteristics through moments alone, particularly, the hindering of different natures of droplet formation. Finally, the method is applied to physically interpret a case-study based on multijet atomization processes

Evaluating equilibrium and non-equilibrium transport of bromide and isoproturon in disturbed and undisturbed soil columns

Science.gov (United States)

Dousset, S.; Thevenot, M.; Pot, V.; Šimunek, J.; Andreux, F.

2007-12-01

In this study, displacement experiments of isoproturon were conducted in disturbed and undisturbed columns of a silty clay loam soil under similar rainfall intensities. Solute transport occurred under saturated conditions in the undisturbed soil and under unsaturated conditions in the sieved soil because of a greater bulk density of the compacted undisturbed soil compared to the sieved soil. The objective of this work was to determine transport characteristics of isoproturon relative to bromide tracer. Triplicate column experiments were performed with sieved (structure partially destroyed to simulate conventional tillage) and undisturbed (structure preserved) soils. Bromide experimental breakthrough curves were analyzed using convective-dispersive and dual-permeability (DP) models (HYDRUS-1D). Isoproturon breakthrough curves (BTCs) were analyzed using the DP model that considered either chemical equilibrium or non-equilibrium transport. The DP model described the bromide elution curves of the sieved soil columns well, whereas it overestimated the tailing of the bromide BTCs of the undisturbed soil columns. A higher degree of physical non-equilibrium was found in the undisturbed soil, where 56% of total water was contained in the slow-flow matrix, compared to 26% in the sieved soil. Isoproturon BTCs were best described in both sieved and undisturbed soil columns using the DP model combined with the chemical non-equilibrium. Higher degradation rates were obtained in the transport experiments than in batch studies, for both soils. This was likely caused by hysteresis in sorption of isoproturon. However, it cannot be ruled out that higher degradation rates were due, at least in part, to the adopted first-order model. Results showed that for similar rainfall intensity, physical and chemical non-equilibrium were greater in the saturated undisturbed soil than in the unsaturated sieved soil. Results also suggested faster transport of isoproturon in the undisturbed soil due

SERC School on Computational Statistical Physics held at the Indian Institute of Technology

CERN Document Server

Ray, Purusattam

2011-01-01

The present book is an outcome of the SERC school on Computational Statistical Physics held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, in December 2008. Numerical experimentation has played an extremely important role in statistical physics in recent years. Lectures given at the School covered a large number of topics of current and continuing interest. Based on lectures by active researchers in the field- Bikas Chakrabarti, S Chaplot, Deepak Dhar, Sanjay Kumar, Prabal Maiti, Sanjay Puri, Purusattam Ray, Sitangshu Santra and Subir Sarkar- the nine chapters comprising the book deal with topics that range from the fundamentals of the field, to problems and questions that are at the very forefront of current research. This book aims to expose the graduate student to the basic as well as advanced techniques in computational statistical physics. Following a general introduction to statistical mechanics and critical phenomena, the various chapters cover Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulation methodolog...

Bose and his statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Venkataraman, G.

1992-01-01

Treating radiation gas as a classical gas, Einstein derived Planck's law of radiation by considering the dynamic equilibrium between atoms and radiation. Dissatisfied with this treatment, S.N. Bose derived Plank's law by another original way. He treated the problem in generality: he counted how many cells were available for the photon gas in phase space and distributed the photons into these cells. In this manner of distribution, there were three radically new ideas: The indistinguishability of particles, the spin of the photon (with only two possible orientations) and the nonconservation of photon number. This gave rise to a new discipline of quantum statistical mechanics. Physics underlying Bose's discovery, its significance and its role in development of the concept of ideal gas, spin-statistics theorem and spin particles are described. The book has been written in a simple and direct language in an informal style aiming to stimulate the curiosity of a reader. (M.G.B.)

Silicon Burning. II. Quasi-Equilibrium and Explosive Burning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hix, W.R.; Thielemann, F.

1999-01-01

Having examined the application of quasi-equilibrium to hydrostatic silicon burning in Paper I of this series, we now turn our attention to explosive silicon burning. Previous authors have shown that for material that is heated to high temperature by a passing shock and then cooled by adiabatic expansion, the results can be divided into three broad categories, incomplete burning, normal freezeout, and α-rich freezeout, with the outcome depending on the temperature, density, and cooling timescale. In all three cases, we find that the important abundances obey quasi-equilibrium for temperatures greater than approximately 3x10 9 K, with relatively little nucleosynthesis occurring following the breakdown of quasi-equilibrium. We will show that quasi-equilibrium provides better abundance estimates than global nuclear statistical equilibrium, even for normal freezeout, and particularly for α-rich freezeout. We will also examine the accuracy with which the final nuclear abundances can be estimated from quasi-equilibrium. copyright copyright 1999. The American Astronomical Society

Introduction to statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Huang, Kerson

2009-01-01

A Macroscopic View of MatterViewing the World at Different Scales Thermodynamics The Thermodynamic Limit Thermodynamic TransformationsClassic Ideal Gas First Law of Thermodynamics Magnetic SystemsHeat and EntropyThe Heat Equations Applications to Ideal Gas Carnot Cycle Second Law of Thermodynamics Absolute Temperature Temperature as Integrating Factor EntropyEntropy of Ideal Gas The Limits of ThermodynamicsUsing ThermodynamicsThe Energy EquationSome Measurable Coefficients Entropy and Loss TS Diagram Condition for Equilibrium Helmholtz Free EnergyGibbs Potential Maxwell Relations Chemical Pote

Fluctuations of physical values in statistical mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zaripov, R.G.

1999-01-01

The new matrix inequalities for the boundary of measurement accuracy of physical values in the ensemble of quantum systems were obtained. The multidimensional thermodynamical parameter measurement is estimated. The matrix inequalities obtained are quantum analogs of the Cramer-Rao information inequalities in mathematical statistics. The quantity of information in quantum mechanical measurement, connected with the boundaries of jointly measurable values in one macroscopic experiment was determined. The lower boundary of the variance of estimation of multidimensional quantum mechanical parameter was found. (author)

Fundamental properties of fracture and seismicity in a non extensive statistical physics framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Vallianatos, Filippos

2010-05-01

A fundamental challenge in many scientific disciplines concerns upscaling, that is, of determining the regularities and laws of evolution at some large scale, from those known at a lower scale. Earthquake physics is no exception, with the challenge of understanding the transition from the laboratory scale to the scale of fault networks and large earthquakes. In this context, statistical physics has a remarkably successful work record in addressing the upscaling problem in physics. It is natural then to consider that the physics of many earthquakes has to be studied with a different approach than the physics of one earthquake and in this sense we can consider the use of statistical physics not only appropriate but necessary to understand the collective properties of earthquakes [see Corral 2004, 2005a,b,c;]. A significant attempt is given in a series of works [Main 1996; Rundle et al., 1997; Main et al., 2000; Main and Al-Kindy, 2002; Rundle et al., 2003; Vallianatos and Triantis, 2008a] that uses classical statistical physics to describe seismicity. Then a natural question arises. What type of statistical physics is appropriate to commonly describe effects from fracture level to seismicity scale?? The application of non extensive statistical physics offers a consistent theoretical framework, based on a generalization of entropy, to analyze the behavior of natural systems with fractal or multi-fractal distribution of their elements. Such natural systems where long - range interactions or intermittency are important, lead to power law behavior. We note that this is consistent with a classical thermodynamic approach to natural systems that rapidly attain equilibrium, leading to exponential-law behavior. In the frame of non extensive statistical physics approach, the probability function p(X) is calculated using the maximum entropy formulation of Tsallis entropy which involves the introduction of at least two constraints (Tsallis et al., 1998). The first one is the

The role of nonequilibrium thermo-mechanical statistics in modern technologies and industrial processes: an overview

OpenAIRE

Rodrigues, Clóves G.; Silva, Antônio A. P.; Silva, Carlos A. B.; Vasconcellos, Áurea R.; Ramos, J. Galvão; Luzzi, Roberto

2010-01-01

The nowadays notable development of all the modern technology, fundamental for the progress and well being of world society, imposes a great deal of stress in the realm of basic Physics, more precisely on Thermo-Statistics. We do face situations in electronics and optoelectronics involving physical-chemical systems far-removed-from equilibrium, where ultrafast (in pico- and femto-second scale) and non-linear processes are present. Further, we need to be aware of the rapid unfolding of nano-te...

MEASURING NEBULAR TEMPERATURES: THE EFFECT OF NEW COLLISION STRENGTHS WITH EQUILIBRIUM AND {kappa}-DISTRIBUTED ELECTRON ENERGIES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nicholls, David C.; Dopita, Michael A.; Sutherland, Ralph S.; Kewley, Lisa J. [Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Cotter Rd., Weston ACT 2611 (Australia); Palay, Ethan, E-mail: david@mso.anu.edu.au [Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)

2013-08-15

In this paper we develop tools for observers to use when analyzing nebular spectra for temperatures and metallicities, with two goals: to present a new, simple method to calculate equilibrium electron temperatures for collisionally excited line flux ratios, using the latest atomic data; and to adapt current methods to include the effects of possible non-equilibrium ''{kappa}'' electron energy distributions. Adopting recent collision strength data for [O III], [S III], [O II], [S II], and [N II], we find that existing methods based on older atomic data seriously overestimate the electron temperatures, even when considering purely Maxwellian statistics. If {kappa} distributions exist in H II regions and planetary nebulae as they do in solar system plasmas, it is important to investigate the observational consequences. This paper continues our previous work on the {kappa} distribution. We present simple formulaic methods that allow observers to (1) measure equilibrium electron temperatures and atomic abundances using the latest atomic data, and (2) to apply simple corrections to existing equilibrium analysis techniques to allow for possible non-equilibrium effects. These tools should lead to better consistency in temperature and abundance measurements, and a clearer understanding of the physics of H II regions and planetary nebulae.

Physics-based statistical model and simulation method of RF propagation in urban environments

Science.gov (United States)

Pao, Hsueh-Yuan; Dvorak, Steven L.

2010-09-14

A physics-based statistical model and simulation/modeling method and system of electromagnetic wave propagation (wireless communication) in urban environments. In particular, the model is a computationally efficient close-formed parametric model of RF propagation in an urban environment which is extracted from a physics-based statistical wireless channel simulation method and system. The simulation divides the complex urban environment into a network of interconnected urban canyon waveguides which can be analyzed individually; calculates spectral coefficients of modal fields in the waveguides excited by the propagation using a database of statistical impedance boundary conditions which incorporates the complexity of building walls in the propagation model; determines statistical parameters of the calculated modal fields; and determines a parametric propagation model based on the statistical parameters of the calculated modal fields from which predictions of communications capability may be made.

Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of systems with long-range interactions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Levin, Yan, E-mail: levin@if.ufrgs.br; Pakter, Renato, E-mail: pakter@if.ufrgs.br; Rizzato, Felipe B., E-mail: rizzato@if.ufrgs.br; Teles, Tarcísio N., E-mail: tarcisio.teles@fi.infn.it; Benetti, Fernanda P.C., E-mail: fbenetti@if.ufrgs.br

2014-02-01

Systems with long-range (LR) forces, for which the interaction potential decays with the interparticle distance with an exponent smaller than the dimensionality of the embedding space, remain an outstanding challenge to statistical physics. The internal energy of such systems lacks extensivity and additivity. Although the extensivity can be restored by scaling the interaction potential with the number of particles, the non-additivity still remains. Lack of additivity leads to inequivalence of statistical ensembles. Before relaxing to thermodynamic equilibrium, isolated systems with LR forces become trapped in out-of-equilibrium quasi-stationary states (qSSs), the lifetime of which diverges with the number of particles. Therefore, in the thermodynamic limit LR systems will not relax to equilibrium. The qSSs are attained through the process of collisionless relaxation. Density oscillations lead to particle–wave interactions and excitation of parametric resonances. The resonant particles escape from the main cluster to form a tenuous halo. Simultaneously, this cools down the core of the distribution and dampens out the oscillations. When all the oscillations die out the ergodicity is broken and a qSS is born. In this report, we will review a theory which allows us to quantitatively predict the particle distribution in the qSS. The theory is applied to various LR interacting systems, ranging from plasmas to self-gravitating clusters and kinetic spin models.

Dependence of equilibrium properties of channeled particles on transverse quasi temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kashlev, Yu.A.

2006-01-01

Quasi-equilibrium and kinetic characteristics of channeled particles are investigated by methods of nonequilibrium statistical thermodynamics. The equilibrium equation of the transverse energy of fast particles and the equilibrium equation of the transverse momentum of particles are derived. It is shown that equilibrium equations solution permits to obtain the expression for the transverse quasi-temperature of the channeled particle subsystem. The quasi-equilibrium angular distribution of particles after transmission through a thin monocrystal and the angular distribution at backscattering are studied. The evaluated data of the transverse quasi-temperature are presented for the case of iodine ion channeling through silver crystals [ru

Statistical issues in searches for new phenomena in High Energy Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, Louis; Wardle, Nicholas

2018-03-01

Many analyses of data in High Energy Physics are concerned with searches for New Physics. We review the statistical issues that arise in such searches, and then illustrate these using the specific example of the recent successful search for the Higgs boson, produced in collisions between high energy protons at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

On solutions to equilibrium problems for systems of stiffened gases

OpenAIRE

Flåtten, Tore; Morin, Alexandre; Munkejord, Svend Tollak

2011-01-01

We consider an isolated system of N immiscible fluids, each following a stiffened-gas equation of state. We consider the problem of calculating equilibrium states from the conserved fluid-mechanical properties, i.e., the partial densities and internal energies. We consider two cases; in each case mechanical equilibrium is assumed, but the fluids may or may not be in thermal equilibrium. For both cases, we address the issues of existence, uniqueness, and physical validity of equilibrium soluti...

A new universality class in corpus of texts; A statistical physics study

Science.gov (United States)

Najafi, Elham; Darooneh, Amir H.

2018-05-01

Text can be regarded as a complex system. There are some methods in statistical physics which can be used to study this system. In this work, by means of statistical physics methods, we reveal new universal behaviors of texts associating with the fractality values of words in a text. The fractality measure indicates the importance of words in a text by considering distribution pattern of words throughout the text. We observed a power law relation between fractality of text and vocabulary size for texts and corpora. We also observed this behavior in studying biological data.

Scaling studies of spheromak formation and equilibrium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geddes, C.G.; Kornack, T.W.; Brown, M.R.

1998-01-01

Formation and equilibrium studies have been performed on the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX). Spheromaks are formed with a magnetized coaxial plasma gun and equilibrium is established in both small (d small =0.16 m) and large (d large =3d small =0.50 m) copper flux conservers. Using magnetic probe arrays it has been verified that spheromak formation is governed solely by gun physics (in particular the ratio of gun current to flux, μ 0 I gun /Φ gun ) and is independent of the flux conserver dimensions. It has also been verified that equilibrium is well described by the force free condition ∇xB=λB (λ=constant), particularly early in decay. Departures from the force-free state are due to current profile effects described by a quadratic function λ=λ(ψ). Force-free SSX spheromaks will be merged to study magnetic reconnection in simple magnetofluid structures. copyright 1998 American Institute of Physics

Temperature in non-equilibrium states: a review of open problems and current proposals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casas-Vazquez, J; Jou, D

2003-01-01

The conceptual problems arising in the definition and measurement of temperature in non-equilibrium states are discussed in this paper in situations where the local-equilibrium hypothesis is no longer satisfactory. This is a necessary and urgent discussion because of the increasing interest in thermodynamic theories beyond local equilibrium, in computer simulations, in non-linear statistical mechanics, in new experiments, and in technological applications of nanoscale systems and material sciences. First, we briefly review the concept of temperature from the perspectives of equilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Afterwards, we explore which of the equilibrium concepts may be extrapolated beyond local equilibrium and which of them should be modified, then we review several attempts to define temperature in non-equilibrium situations from macroscopic and microscopic bases. A wide review of proposals is offered on effective non-equilibrium temperatures and their application to ideal and real gases, electromagnetic radiation, nuclear collisions, granular systems, glasses, sheared fluids, amorphous semiconductors and turbulent fluids. The consistency between the different relativistic transformation laws for temperature is discussed in the new light gained from this perspective. A wide bibliography is provided in order to foster further research in this field

Finding equilibrium in the spatiotemporal chaos of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation

Science.gov (United States)

Ballard, Christopher C.; Esty, C. Clark; Egolf, David A.

2016-11-01

Equilibrium statistical mechanics allows the prediction of collective behaviors of large numbers of interacting objects from just a few system-wide properties; however, a similar theory does not exist for far-from-equilibrium systems exhibiting complex spatial and temporal behavior. We propose a method for predicting behaviors in a broad class of such systems and apply these ideas to an archetypal example, the spatiotemporal chaotic 1D complex Ginzburg-Landau equation in the defect chaos regime. Building on the ideas of Ruelle and of Cross and Hohenberg that a spatiotemporal chaotic system can be considered a collection of weakly interacting dynamical units of a characteristic size, the chaotic length scale, we identify underlying, mesoscale, chaotic units and effective interaction potentials between them. We find that the resulting equilibrium Takahashi model accurately predicts distributions of particle numbers. These results suggest the intriguing possibility that a class of far-from-equilibrium systems may be well described at coarse-grained scales by the well-established theory of equilibrium statistical mechanics.

BOOK REVIEW: New Directions in Statistical Physics: Econophysics, Bioinformatics, and Pattern Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Grassberger, P.

2004-10-01

This book contains 18 contributions from different authors. Its subtitle `Econophysics, Bioinformatics, and Pattern Recognition' says more precisely what it is about: not so much about central problems of conventional statistical physics like equilibrium phase transitions and critical phenomena, but about its interdisciplinary applications. After a long period of specialization, physicists have, over the last few decades, found more and more satisfaction in breaking out of the limitations set by the traditional classification of sciences. Indeed, this classification had never been strict, and physicists in particular had always ventured into other fields. Helmholtz, in the middle of the 19th century, had considered himself a physicist when working on physiology, stressing that the physics of animate nature is as much a legitimate field of activity as the physics of inanimate nature. Later, Max Delbrück and Francis Crick did for experimental biology what Schrödinger did for its theoretical foundation. And many of the experimental techniques used in chemistry, biology, and medicine were developed by a steady stream of talented physicists who left their proper discipline to venture out into the wider world of science. The development we have witnessed over the last thirty years or so is different. It started with neural networks where methods could be applied which had been developed for spin glasses, but todays list includes vehicular traffic (driven lattice gases), geology (self-organized criticality), economy (fractal stochastic processes and large scale simulations), engineering (dynamical chaos), and many others. By staying in the physics departments, these activities have transformed the physics curriculum and the view physicists have of themselves. In many departments there are now courses on econophysics or on biological physics, and some universities offer degrees in the physics of traffic or in econophysics. In order to document this change of attitude

Stochastic simulations for the time evolution of systems which obey generalized statistics: fractional exclusion statistics and Gentile's statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nemnes, G A; Anghel, D V

2010-01-01

We present a stochastic method for the simulation of the time evolution in systems which obey generalized statistics, namely fractional exclusion statistics and Gentile's statistics. The transition rates are derived in the framework of canonical ensembles. This approach introduces a tool for describing interacting fermionic and bosonic systems in non-equilibrium as ideal FES systems, in a computationally efficient manner. The two types of statistics are analyzed comparatively, indicating their intrinsic thermodynamic differences and revealing key aspects related to the species size

Many-body current formula and current conservation for non-equilibrium fully interacting nanojunctions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ness, H; Dash, L K

2012-01-01

We consider the electron transport properties through fully interacting nanoscale junctions beyond the linear-response regime. We calculate the current flowing through an interacting region connected to two interacting leads, with interaction crossing at the left and right contacts, by using a non-equilibrium Green function technique. The total current at one interface (the left one for example) is made of several terms which can be regrouped into two sets. The first set corresponds to a very generalized Landauer-like current formula with physical quantities defined only in the interacting central region and with renormalized lead self-energies. The second set characterizes inelastic scattering events occurring in the left lead. We show how this term can be negligible or even vanish due to the pseudo-equilibrium statistical properties of the lead in the thermodynamic limit. The expressions for the different Green functions needed for practical calculations of the current are also provided. We determine the constraints imposed by the physical condition of current conservation. The corresponding equation imposed on the different self-energy quantities arising from the current conservation is derived. We discuss in detail its physical interpretation and its relation with previously derived expressions. Finally several important key features are discussed in relation to the implementation of our formalism for calculations of quantum transport in realistic systems. (paper)

Disturbances in equilibrium function after major earthquake.

Science.gov (United States)

Honma, Motoyasu; Endo, Nobutaka; Osada, Yoshihisa; Kim, Yoshiharu; Kuriyama, Kenichi

2012-01-01

Major earthquakes were followed by a large number of aftershocks and significant outbreaks of dizziness occurred over a large area. However it is unclear why major earthquake causes dizziness. We conducted an intergroup trial on equilibrium dysfunction and psychological states associated with equilibrium dysfunction in individuals exposed to repetitive aftershocks versus those who were rarely exposed. Greater equilibrium dysfunction was observed in the aftershock-exposed group under conditions without visual compensation. Equilibrium dysfunction in the aftershock-exposed group appears to have arisen from disturbance of the inner ear, as well as individual vulnerability to state anxiety enhanced by repetitive exposure to aftershocks. We indicate potential effects of autonomic stress on equilibrium function after major earthquake. Our findings may contribute to risk management of psychological and physical health after major earthquakes with aftershocks, and allow development of a new empirical approach to disaster care after such events.

Non-equilibrium coherence dynamics in one-dimensional Bose gases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hofferberth, S.; Lesanovsky, Igor; Fischer, B.

2007-01-01

Low-dimensional systems provide beautiful examples of many-body quantum physics. For one-dimensional (1D) systems, the Luttinger liquid approach provides insight into universal properties. Much is known of the equilibrium state, both in the weakly and strongly interacting regimes. However......, the coherence factor is observed to approach a non-zero equilibrium value, as predicted by a Bogoliubov approach. This coupled-system decay to finite coherence is the matter wave equivalent of phase-locking two lasers by injection. The non-equilibrium dynamics of superfluids has an important role in a wide...... range of physical systems, such as superconductors, quantum Hall systems, superfluid helium and spin systems. Our experiments studying coherence dynamics show that 1D Bose gases are ideally suited for investigating this class of phenomena....

Conceptual developments of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics in the early days of Japan

Science.gov (United States)

Ichiyanagi, Masakazu

1995-11-01

This paper reviews the research in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics made in Japan in the period between 1930 and 1960. Nearly thirty years have passed since the discovery of the exact formula for the electrical conductivity. With the rise of the linear response theory, the methods and results of which are quickly grasped by anyone, its rationale was pushed aside and even at the stage where the formulation was still incomplete some authors hurried to make physical applications. Such an attitude robbed it of most of its interest for the average physicist, who would approach an understanding of some basic concept, not through abstract and logical analysis but by simply increasing his technical experiences with the concept. The purpose of this review is to rescue the linear response theory from being labeled a mathematical tool and to show that it has considerable physical content. Many key papers, originally written in Japanese, are reproduced.

Hanging an Airplane: A Case Study in Static Equilibrium

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, Debora M.

2009-11-01

Our classrooms are filled with engineering majors who take a semester-long course in static equilibrium. Many students find this class too challenging and drop their engineering major. In our introductory physics class, we often breeze through static equilibrium; to physicists equilibrium is just a special case of Newton's second law. While it is difficult to find more time in the syllabus for any one topic, a hands-on case study may help students to develop their physical intuition about static equilibrium and may help them to succeed in their subsequent classes. This article describes a hands-on case study that you may wish to use in your classroom. (You may also wish to check a case study involving a boat published in this journal in the 1990s. ) The hands-on case study presented here can be easily modified to work at the high school or introductory college level. There are three major components: I) planning, II) doing, and III) calculating.

Renormalization group in statistical physics - momentum and real spaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yukalov, V.I.

1988-01-01

Two variants of the renormalization group approach in statistical physics are considered, the renormalization group in the momentum and the renormalization group in the real spaces. Common properties of these methods and their differences are cleared up. A simple model for investigating the crossover between different universality classes is suggested. 27 refs

Comments on equilibrium, transient equilibrium, and secular equilibrium in serial radioactive decay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prince, J.R.

1979-01-01

Equations describing serial radioactive decay are reviewed along with published descriptions or transient and secular equilibrium. It is shown that terms describing equilibrium are not used in the same way by various authors. Specific definitions are proposed; they suggest that secular equilibrium is a subset of transient equilibrium

Fundamentals of classical statistical thermodynamics dissipation, relaxation, and fluctuation theorems

CERN Document Server

Evans, Denis James; Williams, Stephen Rodney

2016-01-01

Both a comprehensive overview and a treatment at the appropriate level of detail, this textbook explains thermodynamics and generalizes the subject so it can be applied to small nano- or biosystems, arbitrarily far from or close to equilibrium. In addition, nonequilibrium free energy theorems are covered with a rigorous exposition of each one. Throughout, the authors stress the physical concepts along with the mathematical derivations. For researchers and students in physics, chemistry, materials science and molecular biology, this is a useful text for postgraduate courses in statistical mechanics, thermodynamics and molecular simulations, while equally serving as a reference for university teachers and researchers in these fields.

Multivariate statistical methods and data mining in particle physics (4/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2008-01-01

The lectures will cover multivariate statistical methods and their applications in High Energy Physics. The methods will be viewed in the framework of a statistical test, as used e.g. to discriminate between signal and background events. Topics will include an introduction to the relevant statistical formalism, linear test variables, neural networks, probability density estimation (PDE) methods, kernel-based PDE, decision trees and support vector machines. The methods will be evaluated with respect to criteria relevant to HEP analyses such as statistical power, ease of computation and sensitivity to systematic effects. Simple computer examples that can be extended to more complex analyses will be presented.

Multivariate statistical methods and data mining in particle physics (2/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2008-01-01

The lectures will cover multivariate statistical methods and their applications in High Energy Physics. The methods will be viewed in the framework of a statistical test, as used e.g. to discriminate between signal and background events. Topics will include an introduction to the relevant statistical formalism, linear test variables, neural networks, probability density estimation (PDE) methods, kernel-based PDE, decision trees and support vector machines. The methods will be evaluated with respect to criteria relevant to HEP analyses such as statistical power, ease of computation and sensitivity to systematic effects. Simple computer examples that can be extended to more complex analyses will be presented.

Multivariate statistical methods and data mining in particle physics (1/4)

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2008-01-01

The lectures will cover multivariate statistical methods and their applications in High Energy Physics. The methods will be viewed in the framework of a statistical test, as used e.g. to discriminate between signal and background events. Topics will include an introduction to the relevant statistical formalism, linear test variables, neural networks, probability density estimation (PDE) methods, kernel-based PDE, decision trees and support vector machines. The methods will be evaluated with respect to criteria relevant to HEP analyses such as statistical power, ease of computation and sensitivity to systematic effects. Simple computer examples that can be extended to more complex analyses will be presented.

Punctuated Equilibrium in Statistical Models of Generalized Coevolutionary Resilience: How Sudden Ecosystem Transitions Can Entrain Both Phenotype Expression and Darwinian Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace, Rodrick; Wallace, Deborah

We argue that mesoscale ecosystem resilience shifts akin to sudden phase transitions in physical systems can entrain similarly punctuated events of gene expression on more rapid time scales, and, in part through such means, slower changes induced by selection pressure, triggering punctuated equilibrium Darwinian evolutionary transitions on geologic time scales. The approach reduces ecosystem, gene expression, and Darwinian genetic dynamics to a least common denominator of information sources interacting by crosstalk at markedly differing rates. Pettini's 'topological hypothesis', via a homology between information source uncertainty and free energy density, generates a regression-like class of statistical models of sudden coevolutionary phase transition based on the Rate Distortion and Shannon-McMillan Theorems of information theory which links all three levels. A mathematical treatment of Holling's extended keystone hypothesis regarding the particular role of mesoscale phenomena in entraining both slower and faster dynamical structures produces the result. A main theme is the necessity of a cognitive paradigm for gene expression, mirroring I. Cohen's cognitive approach to immune function. Invocation of the necessary conditions imposed by the asymptotic limit theorems of communication theory enables us to penetrate one layer more deeply before needing to impose an empirically-derived phenomenological system of 'Onsager relation' recursive coevolutionary stochastic differential equations. Extending the development to second order via a large deviations argument permits modeling the influence of human cultural structures on ecosystems as 'farming'.

On Dobrushin's way from probability theory to statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Minlos, R A; Suhov, Yu M; Suhov, Yu

2000-01-01

R. Dobrushin worked in several branches of mathematics (probability theory, information theory), but his deepest influence was on mathematical physics. He was one of the founders of the rigorous study of statistical physics. When Dobrushin began working in that direction in the early sixties, only a few people worldwide were thinking along the same lines. Now there is an army of researchers in the field. This collection is devoted to the memory of R. L. Dobrushin. The authors who contributed to this collection knew him quite well and were his colleagues. The title, "On Dobrushin's Way", is mea

Introduction to statistical physics and to computer simulations

CERN Document Server

Casquilho, João Paulo

2015-01-01

Rigorous and comprehensive, this textbook introduces undergraduate students to simulation methods in statistical physics. The book covers a number of topics, including the thermodynamics of magnetic and electric systems; the quantum-mechanical basis of magnetism; ferrimagnetism, antiferromagnetism, spin waves and magnons; liquid crystals as a non-ideal system of technological relevance; and diffusion in an external potential. It also covers hot topics such as cosmic microwave background, magnetic cooling and Bose-Einstein condensation. The book provides an elementary introduction to simulation methods through algorithms in pseudocode for random walks, the 2D Ising model, and a model liquid crystal. Any formalism is kept simple and derivations are worked out in detail to ensure the material is accessible to students from subjects other than physics.

Information Theory - The Bridge Connecting Bounded Rational Game Theory and Statistical Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Wolpert, David H.

2005-01-01

A long-running difficulty with conventional game theory has been how to modify it to accommodate the bounded rationality of all red-world players. A recurring issue in statistical physics is how best to approximate joint probability distributions with decoupled (and therefore far more tractable) distributions. This paper shows that the same information theoretic mathematical structure, known as Product Distribution (PD) theory, addresses both issues. In this, PD theory not only provides a principle formulation of bounded rationality and a set of new types of mean field theory in statistical physics; it also shows that those topics are fundamentally one and the same.

Statistical state dynamics-based analysis of the physical mechanisms sustaining and regulating turbulence in Couette flow

Science.gov (United States)

Farrell, Brian F.; Ioannou, Petros J.

2017-08-01

This paper describes a study of the self-sustaining process in wall turbulence. The study is based on a second order statistical state dynamics model of Couette flow in which the state variables are the streamwise mean flow (first cumulant) and perturbation covariance (second cumulant). This statistical state dynamics model is closed by either setting the third cumulant to zero or by replacing it with a stochastic parametrization. Statistical state dynamics models with this form are referred to as S3T models. S3T models have been shown to self-sustain turbulence with a mean flow and second order perturbation structure similar to that obtained by direct numerical simulation of the equations of motion. The use of a statistical state dynamics model to study the physical mechanisms underlying turbulence has important advantages over the traditional approach of studying the dynamics of individual realizations of turbulence. One advantage is that the analytical structure of S3T statistical state dynamics models isolates the interaction between the mean flow and the perturbation components of the turbulence. Isolation of the interaction between these components reveals how this interaction underlies both the maintenance of the turbulence variance by transfer of energy from the externally driven flow to the perturbation components as well as the enforcement of the observed statistical mean turbulent state by feedback regulation between the mean and perturbation fields. Another advantage of studying turbulence using statistical state dynamics models of S3T form is that the analytical structure of S3T turbulence can be completely characterized. For example, the perturbation component of turbulence in the S3T system is demonstrably maintained by a parametric perturbation growth mechanism in which fluctuation of the mean flow maintains the perturbation field which in turn maintains the mean flow fluctuations in a synergistic interaction. Furthermore, the equilibrium

The Theory of Variances in Equilibrium Reconstruction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zakharov, Leonid E.; Lewandowski, Jerome; Foley, Elizabeth L.; Levinton, Fred M.; Yuh, Howard Y.; Drozdov, Vladimir; McDonald, Darren

2008-01-01

The theory of variances of equilibrium reconstruction is presented. It complements existing practices with information regarding what kind of plasma profiles can be reconstructed, how accurately, and what remains beyond the abilities of diagnostic systems. The σ-curves, introduced by the present theory, give a quantitative assessment of quality of effectiveness of diagnostic systems in constraining equilibrium reconstructions. The theory also suggests a method for aligning the accuracy of measurements of different physical nature

From Random Walks to Brownian Motion, from Diffusion to Entropy: Statistical Principles in Introductory Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Reeves, Mark

2014-03-01

Entropy changes underlie the physics that dominates biological interactions. Indeed, introductory biology courses often begin with an exploration of the qualities of water that are important to living systems. However, one idea that is not explicitly addressed in most introductory physics or biology textbooks is dominant contribution of the entropy in driving important biological processes towards equilibrium. From diffusion to cell-membrane formation, to electrostatic binding in protein folding, to the functioning of nerve cells, entropic effects often act to counterbalance deterministic forces such as electrostatic attraction and in so doing, allow for effective molecular signaling. A small group of biology, biophysics and computer science faculty have worked together for the past five years to develop curricular modules (based on SCALEUP pedagogy) that enable students to create models of stochastic and deterministic processes. Our students are first-year engineering and science students in the calculus-based physics course and they are not expected to know biology beyond the high-school level. In our class, they learn to reduce seemingly complex biological processes and structures to be described by tractable models that include deterministic processes and simple probabilistic inference. The students test these models in simulations and in laboratory experiments that are biologically relevant. The students are challenged to bridge the gap between statistical parameterization of their data (mean and standard deviation) and simple model-building by inference. This allows the students to quantitatively describe realistic cellular processes such as diffusion, ionic transport, and ligand-receptor binding. Moreover, the students confront ``random'' forces and traditional forces in problems, simulations, and in laboratory exploration throughout the year-long course as they move from traditional kinematics through thermodynamics to electrostatic interactions. This talk

Interdisciplinary applications of statistical physics to complex systems: Seismic physics, econophysics, and sociophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Tenenbaum, Joel

This thesis applies statistical physics concepts and methods to quantitatively analyze complex systems. This thesis is separated into four parts: (i) characteristics of earthquake systems (ii) memory and volatility in data time series (iii) the application of part (ii) to world financial markets, and (iv) statistical observations on the evolution of word usage. In Part I, we observe statistical patterns in the occurrence of earthquakes. We select a 14-year earthquake catalog covering the archipelago of Japan. We find that regions traditionally thought of as being too distant from one another for causal contact display remarkably high correlations, and the networks that result have a tendency to link highly connected areas with other highly connected areas. In Part II, we introduce and apply the concept of "volatility asymmetry", the primary use of which is in financial data. We explain the relation between memory and "volatility asymmetry" in terms of an asymmetry parameter lambda. We define a litmus test for determining whether lambda is statistically significant and propose a stochastic model based on this parameter and use the model to further explain empirical data. In Part III, we expand on volatility asymmetry. Importing the concepts of time dependence and universality from physics, we explore the aspects of emerging (or "transition") economies in Eastern Europe as they relate to asymmetry. We find that these emerging markets in some instances behave like developed markets and in other instances do not, and that the distinction is a matter both of country and a matter of time period, crisis periods showing different asymmetry characteristics than "healthy" periods. In Part IV, we take note of a series of findings in econophysics, showing statistical growth similarities between a variety of different areas that all have in common the fact of taking place in areas that are both (i) competing and (ii) dynamic. We show that this same growth distribution can be

Neutron scattering on equilibrium and nonequilibrium phonons, excitons and polaritons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Broude, V.L.; Sheka, E.F.

1978-01-01

A number of problems of solid-state physics representing interest for neutron spectroscopy of future is considered. The development of the neutron inelastic scattering spectroscopy (neutron spectroscopy of equilibrium phonons) is discussed with application to nuclear dynamics of crystals in the thermodynamic equilibrium. The results of high-flux neutron source experiments on molecular crystals are presented. The advantages of neutron inelastic scattering over optical spectroscopy are discussed. The spectroscopy of quasi-equilibrium and non-equilibrium quasi-particles is discussed. In particular, the neutron scattering on polaritons, excitons in thermal equilibrium and production of light-excitons are considered. The problem of the possibility of such experiments is elucidated

Statistical physics of pairwise probability models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yasser Roudi

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Statistical models for describing the probability distribution over the states of biological systems are commonly used for dimensional reduction. Among these models, pairwise models are very attractive in part because they can be fit using a reasonable amount of data: knowledge of the means and correlations between pairs of elements in the system is sufficient. Not surprisingly, then, using pairwise models for studying neural data has been the focus of many studies in recent years. In this paper, we describe how tools from statistical physics can be employed for studying and using pairwise models. We build on our previous work on the subject and study the relation between different methods for fitting these models and evaluating their quality. In particular, using data from simulated cortical networks we study how the quality of various approximate methods for inferring the parameters in a pairwise model depends on the time bin chosen for binning the data. We also study the effect of the size of the time bin on the model quality itself, again using simulated data. We show that using finer time bins increases the quality of the pairwise model. We offer new ways of deriving the expressions reported in our previous work for assessing the quality of pairwise models.

Broken detailed balance and non-equilibrium dynamics in living systems: a review

Science.gov (United States)

Gnesotto, F. S.; Mura, F.; Gladrow, J.; Broedersz, C. P.

2018-06-01

Living systems operate far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Enzymatic activity can induce broken detailed balance at the molecular scale. This molecular scale breaking of detailed balance is crucial to achieve biological functions such as high-fidelity transcription and translation, sensing, adaptation, biochemical patterning, and force generation. While biological systems such as motor enzymes violate detailed balance at the molecular scale, it remains unclear how non-equilibrium dynamics manifests at the mesoscale in systems that are driven through the collective activity of many motors. Indeed, in several cellular systems the presence of non-equilibrium dynamics is not always evident at large scales. For example, in the cytoskeleton or in chromosomes one can observe stationary stochastic processes that appear at first glance thermally driven. This raises the question how non-equilibrium fluctuations can be discerned from thermal noise. We discuss approaches that have recently been developed to address this question, including methods based on measuring the extent to which the system violates the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. We also review applications of this approach to reconstituted cytoskeletal networks, the cytoplasm of living cells, and cell membranes. Furthermore, we discuss a more recent approach to detect actively driven dynamics, which is based on inferring broken detailed balance. This constitutes a non-invasive method that uses time-lapse microscopy data, and can be applied to a broad range of systems in cells and tissue. We discuss the ideas underlying this method and its application to several examples including flagella, primary cilia, and cytoskeletal networks. Finally, we briefly discuss recent developments in stochastic thermodynamics and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, which offer new perspectives to understand the physics of living systems.

Broken detailed balance and non-equilibrium dynamics in living systems: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Gnesotto, F S; Mura, F; Gladrow, J; Broedersz, C P

2018-03-05

Living systems operate far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Enzymatic activity can induce broken detailed balance at the molecular scale. This molecular scale breaking of detailed balance is crucial to achieve biological functions such as high-fidelity transcription and translation, sensing, adaptation, biochemical patterning, and force generation. While biological systems such as motor enzymes violate detailed balance at the molecular scale, it remains unclear how non-equilibrium dynamics manifests at the mesoscale in systems that are driven through the collective activity of many motors. Indeed, in several cellular systems the presence of non-equilibrium dynamics is not always evident at large scales. For example, in the cytoskeleton or in chromosomes one can observe stationary stochastic processes that appear at first glance thermally driven. This raises the question how non-equilibrium fluctuations can be discerned from thermal noise. We discuss approaches that have recently been developed to address this question, including methods based on measuring the extent to which the system violates the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. We also review applications of this approach to reconstituted cytoskeletal networks, the cytoplasm of living cells, and cell membranes. Furthermore, we discuss a more recent approach to detect actively driven dynamics, which is based on inferring broken detailed balance. This constitutes a non-invasive method that uses time-lapse microscopy data, and can be applied to a broad range of systems in cells and tissue. We discuss the ideas underlying this method and its application to several examples including flagella, primary cilia, and cytoskeletal networks. Finally, we briefly discuss recent developments in stochastic thermodynamics and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, which offer new perspectives to understand the physics of living systems.

Instability Versus Equilibrium Propagation of Laser Beam in Plasma

OpenAIRE

Lushnikov, Pavel M.; Rose, Harvey A.

2003-01-01

We obtain, for the first time, an analytic theory of the forward stimulated Brillouin scattering instability of a spatially and temporally incoherent laser beam, that controls the transition between statistical equilibrium and non-equilibrium (unstable) self-focusing regimes of beam propagation. The stability boundary may be used as a comprehensive guide for inertial confinement fusion designs. Well into the stable regime, an analytic expression for the angular diffusion coefficient is obtain...

Generalized statistical criterion for distinguishing random optical groupings from physical multiple systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anosova, Z.P.

1988-01-01

A statistical criterion is proposed for distinguishing between random and physical groupings of stars and galaxies. The criterion is applied to nearby wide multiple stars, triplets of galaxies in the list of Karachentsev, Karachentseva, and Shcherbanovskii, and double galaxies in the list of Dahari, in which the principal components are Seyfert galaxies. Systems that are almost certainly physical, probably physical, probably optical, and almost certainly optical are identified. The limiting difference between the radial velocities of the components of physical multiple galaxies is estimated

Statistical physics, seismogenesis, and seismic hazard

Science.gov (United States)

Main, Ian

1996-11-01

The scaling properties of earthquake populations show remarkable similarities to those observed at or near the critical point of other composite systems in statistical physics. This has led to the development of a variety of different physical models of seismogenesis as a critical phenomenon, involving locally nonlinear dynamics, with simplified rheologies exhibiting instability or avalanche-type behavior, in a material composed of a large number of discrete elements. In particular, it has been suggested that earthquakes are an example of a "self-organized critical phenomenon" analogous to a sandpile that spontaneously evolves to a critical angle of repose in response to the steady supply of new grains at the summit. In this stationary state of marginal stability the distribution of avalanche energies is a power law, equivalent to the Gutenberg-Richter frequency-magnitude law, and the behavior is relatively insensitive to the details of the dynamics. Here we review the results of some of the composite physical models that have been developed to simulate seismogenesis on different scales during (1) dynamic slip on a preexisting fault, (2) fault growth, and (3) fault nucleation. The individual physical models share some generic features, such as a dynamic energy flux applied by tectonic loading at a constant strain rate, strong local interactions, and fluctuations generated either dynamically or by fixed material heterogeneity, but they differ significantly in the details of the assumed dynamics and in the methods of numerical solution. However, all exhibit critical or near-critical behavior, with behavior quantitatively consistent with many of the observed fractal or multifractal scaling laws of brittle faulting and earthquakes, including the Gutenberg-Richter law. Some of the results are sensitive to the details of the dynamics and hence are not strict examples of self-organized criticality. Nevertheless, the results of these different physical models share some

College Physical Chemistry Students' Conceptions of Equilibrium and Fundamental Thermodynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Peter L.; Schwenz, Richard W.

1998-01-01

Focuses on many alternative conceptions and nonconceptions about material related to equilibrium and thermodynamics. Uses interviews and compares the concepts from these with those expressed by experts in textbooks. (DDR)

Synthetic Earthquake Statistics From Physical Fault Models for the Lower Rhine Embayment

Science.gov (United States)

Brietzke, G. B.; Hainzl, S.; Zöller, G.

2012-04-01

As of today, seismic risk and hazard estimates mostly use pure empirical, stochastic models of earthquake fault systems tuned specifically to the vulnerable areas of interest. Although such models allow for reasonable risk estimates they fail to provide a link between the observed seismicity and the underlying physical processes. Solving a state-of-the-art fully dynamic description set of all relevant physical processes related to earthquake fault systems is likely not useful since it comes with a large number of degrees of freedom, poor constraints on its model parameters and a huge computational effort. Here, quasi-static and quasi-dynamic physical fault simulators provide a compromise between physical completeness and computational affordability and aim at providing a link between basic physical concepts and statistics of seismicity. Within the framework of quasi-static and quasi-dynamic earthquake simulators we investigate a model of the Lower Rhine Embayment (LRE) that is based upon seismological and geological data. We present and discuss statistics of the spatio-temporal behavior of generated synthetic earthquake catalogs with respect to simplification (e.g. simple two-fault cases) as well as to complication (e.g. hidden faults, geometric complexity, heterogeneities of constitutive parameters).

Relaxation with high-speed plasma flows and singularity analysis in MHD equilibrium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiraishi, Junya; Ohsaki, Shuichi; Yoshida, Zensho

2004-01-01

Relaxation model that leads to plasma confinement with rigid-rotation is presented. This model applies to Jupiter's magnetosphere. It is shown that the invariance of canonical angular momentum of electron fluid, which is realized by axisymmetry through self-organization process, yields plasma confinement. including poloidal flows in equilibrium equation makes the problem rather complicated. Singularity due to the poloidal flow is focused on. It is shown that the singular equation for equilibrium has the same structure as the equation for linear Alfven wave. Since the singular solution for equilibrium equation is physically inadequate, the singularity may be removed by another physical effect. The Hall-effect is taken into account as a singular perturbation that removes the singularity of equilibrium equation for ideal magnetohydrodynamics. (author)

Statistical Plasma Physics in a Strong Magnetic Field: Paradigms and Problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

J.A. Krommes

2004-03-19

An overview is given of certain aspects of fundamental statistical theories as applied to strongly magnetized plasmas. Emphasis is given to the gyrokinetic formalism, the historical development of realizable Markovian closures, and recent results in the statistical theory of turbulent generation of long-wavelength flows that generalize and provide further physical insight to classic calculations of eddy viscosity. A Hamiltonian formulation of turbulent flow generation is described and argued to be very useful.

Non-equilibrium thermionic electron emission for metals at high temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Domenech-Garret, J. L.; Tierno, S. P.; Conde, L.

2015-08-01

Stationary thermionic electron emission currents from heated metals are compared against an analytical expression derived using a non-equilibrium quantum kappa energy distribution for the electrons. The latter depends on the temperature decreasing parameter κ ( T ) , which decreases with increasing temperature and can be estimated from raw experimental data and characterizes the departure of the electron energy spectrum from equilibrium Fermi-Dirac statistics. The calculations accurately predict the measured thermionic emission currents for both high and moderate temperature ranges. The Richardson-Dushman law governs electron emission for large values of kappa or equivalently, moderate metal temperatures. The high energy tail in the electron energy distribution function that develops at higher temperatures or lower kappa values increases the emission currents well over the predictions of the classical expression. This also permits the quantitative estimation of the departure of the metal electrons from the equilibrium Fermi-Dirac statistics.

On estimating perturbative coefficients in quantum field theory and statistical physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Samuel, M.A.; Stanford Univ., CA

1994-05-01

The authors present a method for estimating perturbative coefficients in quantum field theory and Statistical Physics. They are able to obtain reliable error-bars for each estimate. The results, in all cases, are excellent

PREFACE: Advanced many-body and statistical methods in mesoscopic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Anghel, Dragos Victor; Sabin Delion, Doru; Sorin Paraoanu, Gheorghe

2012-02-01

It has increasingly been realized in recent times that the borders separating various subfields of physics are largely artificial. This is the case for nanoscale physics, physics of lower-dimensional systems and nuclear physics, where the advanced techniques of many-body theory developed in recent times could provide a unifying framework for these disciplines under the general name of mesoscopic physics. Other fields, such as quantum optics and quantum information, are increasingly using related methods. The 6-day conference 'Advanced many-body and statistical methods in mesoscopic systems' that took place in Constanta, Romania, between 27 June and 2 July 2011 was, we believe, a successful attempt at bridging an impressive list of topical research areas: foundations of quantum physics, equilibrium and non-equilibrium quantum statistics/fractional statistics, quantum transport, phases and phase transitions in mesoscopic systems/superfluidity and superconductivity, quantum electromechanical systems, quantum dissipation, dephasing, noise and decoherence, quantum information, spin systems and their dynamics, fundamental symmetries in mesoscopic systems, phase transitions, exactly solvable methods for mesoscopic systems, various extension of the random phase approximation, open quantum systems, clustering, decay and fission modes and systematic versus random behaviour of nuclear spectra. This event brought together participants from seventeen countries and five continents. Each of the participants brought considerable expertise in his/her field of research and, at the same time, was exposed to the newest results and methods coming from the other, seemingly remote, disciplines. The talks touched on subjects that are at the forefront of topical research areas and we hope that the resulting cross-fertilization of ideas will lead to new, interesting results from which everybody will benefit. We are grateful for the financial and organizational support from IFIN-HH, Ovidius

Seventeenth Workshop on Computer Simulation Studies in Condensed-Matter Physics

CERN Document Server

Landau, David P; Schütler, Heinz-Bernd; Computer Simulation Studies in Condensed-Matter Physics XVI

2006-01-01

This status report features the most recent developments in the field, spanning a wide range of topical areas in the computer simulation of condensed matter/materials physics. Both established and new topics are included, ranging from the statistical mechanics of classical magnetic spin models to electronic structure calculations, quantum simulations, and simulations of soft condensed matter. The book presents new physical results as well as novel methods of simulation and data analysis. Highlights of this volume include various aspects of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, studies of properties of real materials using both classical model simulations and electronic structure calculations, and the use of computer simulations in teaching.

"Non-equilibrium" block copolymer micelles with glassy cores: a predictive approach based on theory of equilibrium micelles.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagarajan, Ramanathan

2015-07-01

Micelles generated in water from most amphiphilic block copolymers are widely recognized to be non-equilibrium structures. Typically, the micelles are prepared by a kinetic process, first allowing molecular scale dissolution of the block copolymer in a common solvent that likes both the blocks and then gradually replacing the common solvent by water to promote the hydrophobic blocks to aggregate and create the micelles. The non-equilibrium nature of the micelle originates from the fact that dynamic exchange between the block copolymer molecules in the micelle and the singly dispersed block copolymer molecules in water is suppressed, because of the glassy nature of the core forming polymer block and/or its very large hydrophobicity. Although most amphiphilic block copolymers generate such non-equilibrium micelles, no theoretical approach to a priori predict the micelle characteristics currently exists. In this work, we propose a predictive approach for non-equilibrium micelles with glassy cores by applying the equilibrium theory of micelles in two steps. In the first, we calculate the properties of micelles formed in the mixed solvent while true equilibrium prevails, until the micelle core becomes glassy. In the second step, we freeze the micelle aggregation number at this glassy state and calculate the corona dimension from the equilibrium theory of micelles. The condition when the micelle core becomes glassy is independently determined from a statistical thermodynamic treatment of diluent effect on polymer glass transition temperature. The predictions based on this "non-equilibrium" model compare reasonably well with experimental data for polystyrene-polyethylene oxide diblock copolymer, which is the most extensively studied system in the literature. In contrast, the application of the equilibrium model to describe such a system significantly overpredicts the micelle core and corona dimensions and the aggregation number. The non-equilibrium model suggests ways to

Statistical forces from close-to-equilibrium media

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Basu, U.; Maes, C.; Netočný, Karel

2015-01-01

Roč. 17, Nov (2015), s. 115006 ISSN 1367-2630 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : stochastic thermodynamics * nonequilibrium steady states * active matter Subject RIV: BE - Theoretical Physics Impact factor: 3.570, year: 2015

"Secrets" of High Pressure Phase Equilibrium Experiment.

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Wichterle, Ivan

2005-01-01

Roč. 54, č. 11 (2005), s. 477-479 ISSN 0022-9830 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40720504 Keywords : vapour-liquid equilibrium * experimental work Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry

Foundations of Complex Systems Nonlinear Dynamics, Statistical Physics, and Prediction

CERN Document Server

Nicolis, Gregoire

2007-01-01

Complexity is emerging as a post-Newtonian paradigm for approaching a large body of phenomena of concern at the crossroads of physical, engineering, environmental, life and human sciences from a unifying point of view. This book outlines the foundations of modern complexity research as it arose from the cross-fertilization of ideas and tools from nonlinear science, statistical physics and numerical simulation. It is shown how these developments lead to an understanding, both qualitative and quantitative, of the complex systems encountered in nature and in everyday experience and, conversely, h

Microcanonical ensemble extensive thermodynamics of Tsallis statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parvan, A.S.

2005-01-01

The microscopic foundation of the generalized equilibrium statistical mechanics based on the Tsallis entropy is given by using the Gibbs idea of statistical ensembles of the classical and quantum mechanics.The equilibrium distribution functions are derived by the thermodynamic method based upon the use of the fundamental equation of thermodynamics and the statistical definition of the functions of the state of the system. It is shown that if the entropic index ξ = 1/q - 1 in the microcanonical ensemble is an extensive variable of the state of the system, then in the thermodynamic limit z bar = 1/(q - 1)N = const the principle of additivity and the zero law of thermodynamics are satisfied. In particular, the Tsallis entropy of the system is extensive and the temperature is intensive. Thus, the Tsallis statistics completely satisfies all the postulates of the equilibrium thermodynamics. Moreover, evaluation of the thermodynamic identities in the microcanonical ensemble is provided by the Euler theorem. The principle of additivity and the Euler theorem are explicitly proved by using the illustration of the classical microcanonical ideal gas in the thermodynamic limit

Microcanonical ensemble extensive thermodynamics of Tsallis statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parvan, A.S.

2006-01-01

The microscopic foundation of the generalized equilibrium statistical mechanics based on the Tsallis entropy is given by using the Gibbs idea of statistical ensembles of the classical and quantum mechanics. The equilibrium distribution functions are derived by the thermodynamic method based upon the use of the fundamental equation of thermodynamics and the statistical definition of the functions of the state of the system. It is shown that if the entropic index ξ=1/(q-1) in the microcanonical ensemble is an extensive variable of the state of the system, then in the thermodynamic limit z-bar =1/(q-1)N=const the principle of additivity and the zero law of thermodynamics are satisfied. In particular, the Tsallis entropy of the system is extensive and the temperature is intensive. Thus, the Tsallis statistics completely satisfies all the postulates of the equilibrium thermodynamics. Moreover, evaluation of the thermodynamic identities in the microcanonical ensemble is provided by the Euler theorem. The principle of additivity and the Euler theorem are explicitly proved by using the illustration of the classical microcanonical ideal gas in the thermodynamic limit

Foundations of atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Bruggeman, Peter J.; Iza, Felipe; Brandenburg, Ronny

2017-12-01

Non-equilibrium plasmas have been intensively studied over the past century in the context of material processing, environmental remediation, ozone generation, excimer lamps and plasma display panels. Research on atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasmas intensified over the last two decades leading to a large variety of plasma sources that have been developed for an extended application range including chemical conversion, medicine, chemical analysis and disinfection. The fundamental understanding of these discharges is emerging but there remain a lot of unexplained phenomena in these intrinsically complex plasmas. The properties of non-equilibrium plasmas at atmospheric pressure span over a huge range of electron densities as well as heavy particle and electron temperatures. This paper provides an overview of the key underlying processes that are important for the generation and stabilization of atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasmas. The unique physical and chemical properties of theses discharges are also summarized.

Implementation of statistical analysis methods for medical physics data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teixeira, Marilia S.; Pinto, Nivia G.P.; Barroso, Regina C.; Oliveira, Luis F.

2009-01-01

The objective of biomedical research with different radiation natures is to contribute for the understanding of the basic physics and biochemistry of the biological systems, the disease diagnostic and the development of the therapeutic techniques. The main benefits are: the cure of tumors through the therapy, the anticipated detection of diseases through the diagnostic, the using as prophylactic mean for blood transfusion, etc. Therefore, for the better understanding of the biological interactions occurring after exposure to radiation, it is necessary for the optimization of therapeutic procedures and strategies for reduction of radioinduced effects. The group pf applied physics of the Physics Institute of UERJ have been working in the characterization of biological samples (human tissues, teeth, saliva, soil, plants, sediments, air, water, organic matrixes, ceramics, fossil material, among others) using X-rays diffraction and X-ray fluorescence. The application of these techniques for measurement, analysis and interpretation of the biological tissues characteristics are experimenting considerable interest in the Medical and Environmental Physics. All quantitative data analysis must be initiated with descriptive statistic calculation (means and standard deviations) in order to obtain a previous notion on what the analysis will reveal. It is well known que o high values of standard deviation found in experimental measurements of biologicals samples can be attributed to biological factors, due to the specific characteristics of each individual (age, gender, environment, alimentary habits, etc). This work has the main objective the development of a program for the use of specific statistic methods for the optimization of experimental data an analysis. The specialized programs for this analysis are proprietary, another objective of this work is the implementation of a code which is free and can be shared by the other research groups. As the program developed since the

PHYSICS OF NON-GAUSSIAN FIELDS AND THE COSMOLOGICAL GENUS STATISTIC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

James, J. Berian

2012-01-01

We report a technique to calculate the impact of distinct physical processes inducing non-Gaussianity on the cosmological density field. A natural decomposition of the cosmic genus statistic into an orthogonal polynomial sequence allows complete expression of the scale-dependent evolution of the topology of large-scale structure, in which effects including galaxy bias, nonlinear gravitational evolution, and primordial non-Gaussianity may be delineated. The relationship of this decomposition to previous methods for analyzing the genus statistic is briefly considered and the following applications are made: (1) the expression of certain systematics affecting topological measurements, (2) the quantification of broad deformations from Gaussianity that appear in the genus statistic as measured in the Horizon Run simulation, and (3) the study of the evolution of the genus curve for simulations with primordial non-Gaussianity. These advances improve the treatment of flux-limited galaxy catalogs for use with this measurement and further the use of the genus statistic as a tool for exploring non-Gaussianity.

Statistical-mechanical entropy by the thin-layer method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng, He; Kim, Sung Won

2003-01-01

G. Hooft first studied the statistical-mechanical entropy of a scalar field in a Schwarzschild black hole background by the brick-wall method and hinted that the statistical-mechanical entropy is the statistical origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the black hole. However, according to our viewpoint, the statistical-mechanical entropy is only a quantum correction to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the black-hole. The brick-wall method based on thermal equilibrium at a large scale cannot be applied to the cases out of equilibrium such as a nonstationary black hole. The statistical-mechanical entropy of a scalar field in a nonstationary black hole background is calculated by the thin-layer method. The condition of local equilibrium near the horizon of the black hole is used as a working postulate and is maintained for a black hole which evaporates slowly enough and whose mass is far greater than the Planck mass. The statistical-mechanical entropy is also proportional to the area of the black hole horizon. The difference from the stationary black hole is that the result relies on a time-dependent cutoff

Statistical methods for data analysis in particle physics

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(CDS)2070643

2015-01-01

This concise set of course-based notes provides the reader with the main concepts and tools to perform statistical analysis of experimental data, in particular in the field of high-energy physics (HEP). First, an introduction to probability theory and basic statistics is given, mainly as reminder from advanced undergraduate studies, yet also in view to clearly distinguish the Frequentist versus Bayesian approaches and interpretations in subsequent applications. More advanced concepts and applications are gradually introduced, culminating in the chapter on upper limits as many applications in HEP concern hypothesis testing, where often the main goal is to provide better and better limits so as to be able to distinguish eventually between competing hypotheses or to rule out some of them altogether. Many worked examples will help newcomers to the field and graduate students to understand the pitfalls in applying theoretical concepts to actual data

Understanding Thermal Equilibrium through Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Pathare, Shirish; Huli, Saurabhee; Nachane, Madhura; Ladage, Savita; Pradhan, Hemachandra

2015-01-01

Thermal equilibrium is a basic concept in thermodynamics. In India, this concept is generally introduced at the first year of undergraduate education in physics and chemistry. In our earlier studies (Pathare and Pradhan 2011 "Proc. episteme-4 Int. Conf. to Review Research on Science Technology and Mathematics Education" pp 169-72) we…

Non-equilibrium synergistic effects in atmospheric pressure plasmas.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Heng; Zhang, Xiao-Ning; Chen, Jian; Li, He-Ping; Ostrikov, Kostya Ken

2018-03-19

Non-equilibrium is one of the important features of an atmospheric gas discharge plasma. It involves complicated physical-chemical processes and plays a key role in various actual plasma processing. In this report, a novel complete non-equilibrium model is developed to reveal the non-equilibrium synergistic effects for the atmospheric-pressure low-temperature plasmas (AP-LTPs). It combines a thermal-chemical non-equilibrium fluid model for the quasi-neutral plasma region and a simplified sheath model for the electrode sheath region. The free-burning argon arc is selected as a model system because both the electrical-thermal-chemical equilibrium and non-equilibrium regions are involved simultaneously in this arc plasma system. The modeling results indicate for the first time that it is the strong and synergistic interactions among the mass, momentum and energy transfer processes that determine the self-consistent non-equilibrium characteristics of the AP-LTPs. An energy transfer process related to the non-uniform spatial distributions of the electron-to-heavy-particle temperature ratio has also been discovered for the first time. It has a significant influence for self-consistently predicting the transition region between the "hot" and "cold" equilibrium regions of an AP-LTP system. The modeling results would provide an instructive guidance for predicting and possibly controlling the non-equilibrium particle-energy transportation process in various AP-LTPs in future.

The applications of Complexity Theory and Tsallis Non-extensive Statistics at Solar Plasma Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlos, George

2015-04-01

As the solar plasma lives far from equilibrium it is an excellent laboratory for testing complexity theory and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. In this study, we present the highlights of complexity theory and Tsallis non extensive statistical mechanics as concerns their applications at solar plasma dynamics, especially at sunspot, solar flare and solar wind phenomena. Generally, when a physical system is driven far from equilibrium states some novel characteristics can be observed related to the nonlinear character of dynamics. Generally, the nonlinearity in space plasma dynamics can generate intermittent turbulence with the typical characteristics of the anomalous diffusion process and strange topologies of stochastic space plasma fields (velocity and magnetic fields) caused by the strange dynamics and strange kinetics (Zaslavsky, 2002). In addition, according to Zelenyi and Milovanov (2004) the complex character of the space plasma system includes the existence of non-equilibrium (quasi)-stationary states (NESS) having the topology of a percolating fractal set. The stabilization of a system near the NESS is perceived as a transition into a turbulent state determined by self-organization processes. The long-range correlation effects manifest themselves as a strange non-Gaussian behavior of kinetic processes near the NESS plasma state. The complex character of space plasma can also be described by the non-extensive statistical thermodynamics pioneered by Tsallis, which offers a consistent and effective theoretical framework, based on a generalization of Boltzmann - Gibbs (BG) entropy, to describe far from equilibrium nonlinear complex dynamics (Tsallis, 2009). In a series of recent papers, the hypothesis of Tsallis non-extensive statistics in magnetosphere, sunspot dynamics, solar flares, solar wind and space plasma in general, was tested and verified (Karakatsanis et al., 2013; Pavlos et al., 2014; 2015). Our study includes the analysis of solar plasma time

Temperature in and out of equilibrium: A review of concepts, tools and attempts

Science.gov (United States)

Puglisi, A.; Sarracino, A.; Vulpiani, A.

2017-11-01

We review the general aspects of the concept of temperature in equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Although temperature is an old and well-established notion, it still presents controversial facets. After a short historical survey of the key role of temperature in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, we tackle a series of issues which have been recently reconsidered. In particular, we discuss different definitions and their relevance for energy fluctuations. The interest in such a topic has been triggered by the recent observation of negative temperatures in condensed matter experiments. Moreover, the ability to manipulate systems at the micro and nano-scale urges to understand and clarify some aspects related to the statistical properties of small systems (as the issue of temperature's ;fluctuations;). We also discuss the notion of temperature in a dynamical context, within the theory of linear response for Hamiltonian systems at equilibrium and stochastic models with detailed balance, and the generalized fluctuation-response relations, which provide a hint for an extension of the definition of temperature in far-from-equilibrium systems. To conclude we consider non-Hamiltonian systems, such as granular materials, turbulence and active matter, where a general theoretical framework is still lacking.

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics of radiation-induced processes in solids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yurov, V.M.; Eshchanov, A.N.; Kuketaev, A.T.; Sidorenya, Yu.S.

2005-01-01

In the paper an item about a defect system response in solids on external action (temperature, pressure, light, etc.) from the point of view of non-equilibrium statistical thermodynamics is considered

Identification of AE Bursts by Classification of Physical and Statistical Parameters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mieza, J.I.; Oliveto, M.E.; Lopez Pumarega, M.I.; Armeite, M.; Ruzzante, J.E.; Piotrkowski, R.

2005-01-01

Physical and statistical parameters obtained with the Principal Components method, extracted from Acoustic Emission bursts coming from triaxial deformation tests were analyzed. The samples came from seamless steel tubes used in the petroleum industry and some of them were provided with a protective coating. The purpose of our work was to identify bursts originated in the breakage of the coating, from those originated in damage mechanisms in the bulk steel matrix. Analysis was performed by statistical distributions, fractal analysis and clustering methods

Critical dynamics a field theory approach to equilibrium and non-equilibrium scaling behavior

CERN Document Server

Täuber, Uwe C

2014-01-01

Introducing a unified framework for describing and understanding complex interacting systems common in physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, and the social sciences, this comprehensive overview of dynamic critical phenomena covers the description of systems at thermal equilibrium, quantum systems, and non-equilibrium systems. Powerful mathematical techniques for dealing with complex dynamic systems are carefully introduced, including field-theoretic tools and the perturbative dynamical renormalization group approach, rapidly building up a mathematical toolbox of relevant skills. Heuristic and qualitative arguments outlining the essential theory behind each type of system are introduced at the start of each chapter, alongside real-world numerical and experimental data, firmly linking new mathematical techniques to their practical applications. Each chapter is supported by carefully tailored problems for solution, and comprehensive suggestions for further reading, making this an excellent introduction to critic...

Validation of equilibrium tools on the COMPASS tokamak

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Urban, J., E-mail: urban@ipp.cas.cz [Institute of Plasma Physics ASCR, Za Slovankou 3, 182 00 Praha 8 (Czech Republic); Appel, L.C. [CCFE, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom); Artaud, J.F. [CEA, IRFM, F-13108 Saint Paul Lez Durance (France); Faugeras, B. [Laboratoire J.A. Dieudonné, UMR 7351, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Parc Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 02 (France); Havlicek, J. [Institute of Plasma Physics ASCR, Za Slovankou 3, 182 00 Praha 8 (Czech Republic); Department of Surface and Plasma Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, V Holešovičkách 2, 180 00 Praha 8 (Czech Republic); Komm, M. [Institute of Plasma Physics ASCR, Za Slovankou 3, 182 00 Praha 8 (Czech Republic); Lupelli, I. [CCFE, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom); Peterka, M. [Institute of Plasma Physics ASCR, Za Slovankou 3, 182 00 Praha 8 (Czech Republic); Department of Surface and Plasma Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, V Holešovičkách 2, 180 00 Praha 8 (Czech Republic)

2015-10-15

Highlights: • Three equilibrium codes—EFIT++, FREEBIE and VacTH—have been successfully set up and validated on COMPASS. • FREEBIE can predictively calculate the equilibrium and corresponding poloidal field coil currents. • EFIT++ can reconstruct equilibria generated by FREEBIE from synthetic, optionally noisy diagnostic data. • VacTH is a promising tool for real time plasma shape reconstruction. • Optimized parameters are estimated for EFIT++ and VacTH by a statistical analysis. - Abstract: Various MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) equilibrium tools, some of which being recently developed or considerably updated, are used on the COMPASS tokamak at IPP Prague. MHD equilibrium is a fundamental property of the tokamak plasma, whose knowledge is required for many diagnostics and modelling tools. Proper benchmarking and validation of equilibrium tools is thus key for interpreting and planning tokamak experiments. We present here benchmarks and comparisons to experimental data of the EFIT++ reconstruction code (Appel et al., 2006), the free-boundary equilibrium code FREEBIE (Artaud and Kim, 2012), and a rapid plasma boundary reconstruction code VacTH (Faugeras et al., 2014). We demonstrate that FREEBIE can calculate the equilibrium and corresponding poloidal field (PF) coils currents consistently with EFIT++ reconstructions from experimental data. Both EFIT++ and VacTH can reconstruct equilibria generated by FREEBIE from synthetic, optionally noisy diagnostic data. Hence, VacTH is suitable for real-time control. Optimum reconstruction parameters are estimated.

Equilibrium Droplets on Deformable Substrates: Equilibrium Conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Koursari, Nektaria; Ahmed, Gulraiz; Starov, Victor M

2018-05-15

Equilibrium conditions of droplets on deformable substrates are investigated, and it is proven using Jacobi's sufficient condition that the obtained solutions really provide equilibrium profiles of both the droplet and the deformed support. At the equilibrium, the excess free energy of the system should have a minimum value, which means that both necessary and sufficient conditions of the minimum should be fulfilled. Only in this case, the obtained profiles provide the minimum of the excess free energy. The necessary condition of the equilibrium means that the first variation of the excess free energy should vanish, and the second variation should be positive. Unfortunately, the mentioned two conditions are not the proof that the obtained profiles correspond to the minimum of the excess free energy and they could not be. It is necessary to check whether the sufficient condition of the equilibrium (Jacobi's condition) is satisfied. To the best of our knowledge Jacobi's condition has never been verified for any already published equilibrium profiles of both the droplet and the deformable substrate. A simple model of the equilibrium droplet on the deformable substrate is considered, and it is shown that the deduced profiles of the equilibrium droplet and deformable substrate satisfy the Jacobi's condition, that is, really provide the minimum to the excess free energy of the system. To simplify calculations, a simplified linear disjoining/conjoining pressure isotherm is adopted for the calculations. It is shown that both necessary and sufficient conditions for equilibrium are satisfied. For the first time, validity of the Jacobi's condition is verified. The latter proves that the developed model really provides (i) the minimum of the excess free energy of the system droplet/deformable substrate and (ii) equilibrium profiles of both the droplet and the deformable substrate.

Path integral molecular dynamics for exact quantum statistics of multi-electronic-state systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xinzijian; Liu, Jian

2018-03-14

An exact approach to compute physical properties for general multi-electronic-state (MES) systems in thermal equilibrium is presented. The approach is extended from our recent progress on path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD), Liu et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 145, 024103 (2016)] and Zhang et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 147, 034109 (2017)], for quantum statistical mechanics when a single potential energy surface is involved. We first define an effective potential function that is numerically favorable for MES-PIMD and then derive corresponding estimators in MES-PIMD for evaluating various physical properties. Its application to several representative one-dimensional and multi-dimensional models demonstrates that MES-PIMD in principle offers a practical tool in either of the diabatic and adiabatic representations for studying exact quantum statistics of complex/large MES systems when the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, Condon approximation, and harmonic bath approximation are broken.

Methods and applications of statistics in engineering, quality control, and the physical sciences

CERN Document Server

Balakrishnan, N

2011-01-01

Inspired by the Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Second Edition (ESS2e), this volume presents a concise, well-rounded focus on the statistical concepts and applications that are essential for understanding gathered data in the fields of engineering, quality control, and the physical sciences. The book successfully upholds the goals of ESS2e by combining both previously-published and newly developed contributions written by over 100 leading academics, researchers, and practitioner in a comprehensive, approachable format. The result is a succinct reference that unveils modern, cutting-edge approaches to acquiring and analyzing data across diverse subject areas within these three disciplines, including operations research, chemistry, physics, the earth sciences, electrical engineering, and quality assurance. In addition, techniques related to survey methodology, computational statistics, and operations research are discussed, where applicable. Topics of coverage include: optimal and stochastic control, arti...

Statistical methods for data analysis in particle physics

CERN Document Server

Lista, Luca

2017-01-01

This concise set of course-based notes provides the reader with the main concepts and tools needed to perform statistical analyses of experimental data, in particular in the field of high-energy physics (HEP). First, the book provides an introduction to probability theory and basic statistics, mainly intended as a refresher from readers’ advanced undergraduate studies, but also to help them clearly distinguish between the Frequentist and Bayesian approaches and interpretations in subsequent applications. More advanced concepts and applications are gradually introduced, culminating in the chapter on both discoveries and upper limits, as many applications in HEP concern hypothesis testing, where the main goal is often to provide better and better limits so as to eventually be able to distinguish between competing hypotheses, or to rule out some of them altogether. Many worked-out examples will help newcomers to the field and graduate students alike understand the pitfalls involved in applying theoretical co...

A statistical model for instable thermodynamical systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sommer, Jens-Uwe

2003-01-01

A generic model is presented for statistical systems which display thermodynamic features in contrast to our everyday experience, such as infinite and negative heat capacities. Such system are instable in terms of classical equilibrium thermodynamics. Using our statistical model, we are able to investigate states of instable systems which are undefined in the framework of equilibrium thermodynamics. We show that a region of negative heat capacity in the adiabatic environment, leads to a first order like phase transition when the system is coupled to a heat reservoir. This phase transition takes place without a phase coexistence. Nevertheless, all intermediate states are stable due to fluctuations. When two instable system are brought in thermal contact, the temperature of the composed system is lower than the minimum temperature of the individual systems. Generally, the equilibrium states of instable system cannot be simply decomposed into equilibrium states of the individual systems. The properties of instable system depend on the environment, ensemble equivalence is broken

GPU-computing in econophysics and statistical physics

Science.gov (United States)

Preis, T.

2011-03-01

A recent trend in computer science and related fields is general purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPUs), which can yield impressive performance. With multiple cores connected by high memory bandwidth, today's GPUs offer resources for non-graphics parallel processing. This article provides a brief introduction into the field of GPU computing and includes examples. In particular computationally expensive analyses employed in financial market context are coded on a graphics card architecture which leads to a significant reduction of computing time. In order to demonstrate the wide range of possible applications, a standard model in statistical physics - the Ising model - is ported to a graphics card architecture as well, resulting in large speedup values.

Quasi-homogenous approximation for description of the properties of dispersed systems. The basic approaches to model hardening processes in nanodispersed silica systems. Part 2. The hardening processes from the standpoint of statistical physics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

KUDRYAVTSEV Pavel Gennadievich

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with possibilities to use quasi-homogenous approximation for discription of properties of dispersed systems. The authors applied statistical polymer ethod based on consideration of average structures of all possible macromolecules of the same weight. The equiations which allow evaluating many additive parameters of macromolecules and the systems with them were deduced. Statistical polymer method makes it possible to model branched, cross-linked macromolecules and the systems with them which are in equilibrium or non-equilibrium state. Fractal analysis of statistical polymer allows modeling different types of random fractal and other objects examined with the mehods of fractal theory. The method of fractal polymer can be also applied not only to polymers but also to composites, gels, associates in polar liquids and other packaged systems. There is also a description of the states of colloid solutions of silica oxide from the point of view of statistical physics. This approach is based on the idea that colloid solution of silica dioxide – sol of silica dioxide – consists of enormous number of interacting particles which are always in move. The paper is devoted to the research of ideal system of colliding but not interacting particles of sol. The analysis of behavior of silica sol was performed according to distribution Maxwell-Boltzmann and free path length was calculated. Using this data the number of the particles which can overcome the potential barrier in collision was calculated. To model kinetics of sol-gel transition different approaches were studied.

Failure of Local Thermal Equilibrium in Quantum Friction

Science.gov (United States)

Intravaia, F.; Behunin, R. O.; Henkel, C.; Busch, K.; Dalvit, D. A. R.

2016-09-01

Recent progress in manipulating atomic and condensed matter systems has instigated a surge of interest in nonequilibrium physics, including many-body dynamics of trapped ultracold atoms and ions, near-field radiative heat transfer, and quantum friction. Under most circumstances the complexity of such nonequilibrium systems requires a number of approximations to make theoretical descriptions tractable. In particular, it is often assumed that spatially separated components of a system thermalize with their immediate surroundings, although the global state of the system is out of equilibrium. This powerful assumption reduces the complexity of nonequilibrium systems to the local application of well-founded equilibrium concepts. While this technique appears to be consistent for the description of some phenomena, we show that it fails for quantum friction by underestimating by approximately 80% the magnitude of the drag force. Our results show that the correlations among the components of driven, but steady-state, quantum systems invalidate the assumption of local thermal equilibrium, calling for a critical reexamination of this approach for describing the physics of nonequilibrium systems.

Equilibrium thermodynamics

CERN Document Server

de Oliveira, Mário J

2017-01-01

This textbook provides an exposition of equilibrium thermodynamics and its applications to several areas of physics with particular attention to phase transitions and critical phenomena. The applications include several areas of condensed matter physics and include also a chapter on thermochemistry. Phase transitions and critical phenomena are treated according to the modern development of the field, based on the ideas of universality and on the Widom scaling theory. For each topic, a mean-field or Landau theory is presented to describe qualitatively the phase transitions. These theories include the van der Waals theory of the liquid-vapor transition, the Hildebrand-Heitler theory of regular mixtures, the Griffiths-Landau theory for multicritical points in multicomponent systems, the Bragg-Williams theory of order-disorder in alloys, the Weiss theory of ferromagnetism, the Néel theory of antiferromagnetism, the Devonshire theory for ferroelectrics and Landau-de Gennes theory of liquid crystals. This new edit...

Statistical physics approach to earthquake occurrence and forecasting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arcangelis, Lucilla de [Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, Second University of Naples, Aversa (CE) (Italy); Godano, Cataldo [Department of Mathematics and Physics, Second University of Naples, Caserta (Italy); Grasso, Jean Robert [ISTerre, IRD-CNRS-OSUG, University of Grenoble, Saint Martin d’Héres (France); Lippiello, Eugenio, E-mail: eugenio.lippiello@unina2.it [Department of Mathematics and Physics, Second University of Naples, Caserta (Italy)

2016-04-25

There is striking evidence that the dynamics of the Earth crust is controlled by a wide variety of mutually dependent mechanisms acting at different spatial and temporal scales. The interplay of these mechanisms produces instabilities in the stress field, leading to abrupt energy releases, i.e., earthquakes. As a consequence, the evolution towards instability before a single event is very difficult to monitor. On the other hand, collective behavior in stress transfer and relaxation within the Earth crust leads to emergent properties described by stable phenomenological laws for a population of many earthquakes in size, time and space domains. This observation has stimulated a statistical mechanics approach to earthquake occurrence, applying ideas and methods as scaling laws, universality, fractal dimension, renormalization group, to characterize the physics of earthquakes. In this review we first present a description of the phenomenological laws of earthquake occurrence which represent the frame of reference for a variety of statistical mechanical models, ranging from the spring-block to more complex fault models. Next, we discuss the problem of seismic forecasting in the general framework of stochastic processes, where seismic occurrence can be described as a branching process implementing space–time-energy correlations between earthquakes. In this context we show how correlations originate from dynamical scaling relations between time and energy, able to account for universality and provide a unifying description for the phenomenological power laws. Then we discuss how branching models can be implemented to forecast the temporal evolution of the earthquake occurrence probability and allow to discriminate among different physical mechanisms responsible for earthquake triggering. In particular, the forecasting problem will be presented in a rigorous mathematical framework, discussing the relevance of the processes acting at different temporal scales for

Comparative evaluation of kinetic, equilibrium and semi-equilibrium models for biomass gasification

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Buragohain, Buljit [Center for Energy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781 039, Assam (India); Chakma, Sankar; Kumar, Peeush [Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781 039, Assam (India); Mahanta, Pinakeswar [Center for Energy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781 039, Assam (India); Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781 039, Assam (India); Moholkar, Vijayanand S. [Center for Energy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781 039, Assam (India); Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781 039, Assam (India)

2013-07-01

Modeling of biomass gasification has been an active area of research for past two decades. In the published literature, three approaches have been adopted for the modeling of this process, viz. thermodynamic equilibrium, semi-equilibrium and kinetic. In this paper, we have attempted to present a comparative assessment of these three types of models for predicting outcome of the gasification process in a circulating fluidized bed gasifier. Two model biomass, viz. rice husk and wood particles, have been chosen for analysis, with gasification medium being air. Although the trends in molar composition, net yield and LHV of the producer gas predicted by three models are in concurrence, significant quantitative difference is seen in the results. Due to rather slow kinetics of char gasification and tar oxidation, carbon conversion achieved in single pass of biomass through the gasifier, calculated using kinetic model, is quite low, which adversely affects the yield and LHV of the producer gas. Although equilibrium and semi-equilibrium models reveal relative insensitivity of producer gas characteristics towards temperature, the kinetic model shows significant effect of temperature on LHV of the gas at low air ratios. Kinetic models also reveal volume of the gasifier to be an insignificant parameter, as the net yield and LHV of the gas resulting from 6 m and 10 m riser is same. On a whole, the analysis presented in this paper indicates that thermodynamic models are useful tools for quantitative assessment of the gasification process, while kinetic models provide physically more realistic picture.

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics

CERN Document Server

De Groot, Sybren Ruurds

1984-01-01

The study of thermodynamics is especially timely today, as its concepts are being applied to problems in biology, biochemistry, electrochemistry, and engineering. This book treats irreversible processes and phenomena - non-equilibrium thermodynamics.S. R. de Groot and P. Mazur, Professors of Theoretical Physics, present a comprehensive and insightful survey of the foundations of the field, providing the only complete discussion of the fluctuating linear theory of irreversible thermodynamics. The application covers a wide range of topics: the theory of diffusion and heat conduction, fluid dyn

Non-extensive statistical effects in nuclear many-body problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lavagno, A.; Quarati, P.

2007-01-01

Density and temperature conditions in many stellar core and in the first stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions imply the presence of non-ideal plasma effects with memory and long-range interactions between particles. Recent progress in statistical mechanics indicates that Tsallis non-extensive thermostatistics could be the natural generalization of the standard classical and quantum statistics, when memory effects and long range forces are not negligible. In this framework, we show that in weakly non-ideal plasma non-extensive effects should be taken into account to derive the equilibrium distribution functions, the quantum fluctuations and correlations between the particles. The strong influence of these effects is discussed in the context of the solar plasma physics and in the high-energy nuclear-nuclear collision experiments. Although the deviation from Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics, in both cases, is very small, the stellar plasma and the hadronic gas are strongly influenced by the non-extensive feature and the discrepancies between experimental data and theoretical previsions are sensibly reduced. (authors)

Module description of TOKAMAK equilibrium code MEUDAS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Masaei; Hayashi, Nobuhiko; Matsumoto, Taro; Ozeki, Takahisa

2002-01-01

The analysis of an axisymmetric MHD equilibrium serves as a foundation of TOKAMAK researches, such as a design of devices and theoretical research, the analysis of experiment result. For this reason, also in JAERI, an efficient MHD analysis code has been developed from start of TOKAMAK research. The free boundary equilibrium code ''MEUDAS'' which uses both the DCR method (Double-Cyclic-Reduction Method) and a Green's function can specify the pressure and the current distribution arbitrarily, and has been applied to the analysis of a broad physical subject as a code having rapidity and high precision. Also the MHD convergence calculation technique in ''MEUDAS'' has been built into various newly developed codes. This report explains in detail each module in ''MEUDAS'' for performing convergence calculation in solving the MHD equilibrium. (author)

Non-equilibrium statistical thermodynamics of neutron gas in reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hayasaka, Hideo

1977-01-01

The thermodynamic structures of non-equilibrium steady states of highly rarefied neutron gas in various media are considered for the irreversible processes owing to creative and destructive reactions of neutrons with nuclei of these media and supply from the external sources. Under the so-called clean and cold condition in reactor, the medium is regarded virtually as offering the different chemical potential fields for each subsystem of a steady neutron gas system. The fluctuations around a steady state are considered in a Markovian-Gaussian process. The generalized Einstein relations are derived for stationary neutron gas systems. The forces and flows of neutron gases in a medium are defined upon the general stationary solution of the Fokker-Planck equation. There exist the symmetry of the kinetic coefficients, and the minimum entropy production upon neutron-nuclear reactions. The distribution functions in various media are determined by each corresponding extremum condition under the vanishing of changes of the respective total entropies in the Gibbs equation. (auth.)

Statistical mechanics of nonequilibrium liquids

CERN Document Server

Evans, Denis J; Craig, D P; McWeeny, R

1990-01-01

Statistical Mechanics of Nonequilibrium Liquids deals with theoretical rheology. The book discusses nonlinear response of systems and outlines the statistical mechanical theory. In discussing the framework of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, the book explains the derivation of a nonequilibrium analogue of the Gibbsian basis for equilibrium statistical mechanics. The book reviews the linear irreversible thermodynamics, the Liouville equation, and the Irving-Kirkwood procedure. The text then explains the Green-Kubo relations used in linear transport coefficients, the linear response theory,

Statistical Physics on the Eve of the 21st Century: in Honour of J B McGuire on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday

Science.gov (United States)

Batchelor, Murray T.; Wille, Luc T.

The Table of Contents for the book is as follows: * Preface * Modelling the Immune System - An Example of the Simulation of Complex Biological Systems * Brief Overview of Quantum Computation * Quantal Information in Statistical Physics * Modeling Economic Randomness: Statistical Mechanics of Market Phenomena * Essentially Singular Solutions of Feigenbaum- Type Functional Equations * Spatiotemporal Chaotic Dynamics in Coupled Map Lattices * Approach to Equilibrium of Chaotic Systems * From Level to Level in Brain and Behavior * Linear and Entropic Transformations of the Hydrophobic Free Energy Sequence Help Characterize a Novel Brain Polyprotein: CART's Protein * Dynamical Systems Response to Pulsed High-Frequency Fields * Bose-Einstein Condensates in the Light of Nonlinear Physics * Markov Superposition Expansion for the Entropy and Correlation Functions in Two and Three Dimensions * Calculation of Wave Center Deflection and Multifractal Analysis of Directed Waves Through the Study of su(1,1)Ferromagnets * Spectral Properties and Phases in Hierarchical Master Equations * Universality of the Distribution Functions of Random Matrix Theory * The Universal Chiral Partition Function for Exclusion Statistics * Continuous Space-Time Symmetries in a Lattice Field Theory * Quelques Cas Limites du Problème à N Corps Unidimensionnel * Integrable Models of Correlated Electrons * On the Riemann Surface of the Three-State Chiral Potts Model * Two Exactly Soluble Lattice Models in Three Dimensions * Competition of Ferromagnetic and Antiferromagnetic Order in the Spin-l/2 XXZ Chain at Finite Temperature * Extended Vertex Operator Algebras and Monomial Bases * Parity and Charge Conjugation Symmetries and S Matrix of the XXZ Chain * An Exactly Solvable Constrained XXZ Chain * Integrable Mixed Vertex Models Ftom the Braid-Monoid Algebra * From Yang-Baxter Equations to Dynamical Zeta Functions for Birational Tlansformations * Hexagonal Lattice Directed Site Animals * Direction in

Non-equilibrium Quasi-Chemical Nucleation Model

Science.gov (United States)

Gorbachev, Yuriy E.

2018-04-01

Quasi-chemical model, which is widely used for nucleation description, is revised on the basis of recent results in studying of non-equilibrium effects in reacting gas mixtures (Kolesnichenko and Gorbachev in Appl Math Model 34:3778-3790, 2010; Shock Waves 23:635-648, 2013; Shock Waves 27:333-374, 2017). Non-equilibrium effects in chemical reactions are caused by the chemical reactions themselves and therefore these contributions should be taken into account in the corresponding expressions for reaction rates. Corrections to quasi-equilibrium reaction rates are of two types: (a) spatially homogeneous (caused by physical-chemical processes) and (b) spatially inhomogeneous (caused by gas expansion/compression processes and proportional to the velocity divergency). Both of these processes play an important role during the nucleation and are included into the proposed model. The method developed for solving the generalized Boltzmann equation for chemically reactive gases is applied for solving the set of equations of the revised quasi-chemical model. It is shown that non-equilibrium processes lead to essential deviation of the quasi-stationary distribution and therefore the nucleation rate from its traditional form.

Statistical mechanics out of equilibrium the irreversibility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez Estrada, R. F.

2001-01-01

A Round Table about the issue of Irreversibility and related matters has taken place during the last (20th) Statistical Mechanics Conference, held in Paris (July 1998). This article tries to provide a view (necessarily limited, and hence, uncompleted) of some approaches to the subject: the one based upon deterministic chaos (which is currently giving rise to a very active research) and the classical interpretation due to Boltzmann. An attempt has been made to write this article in a self-contained way, and to avoid a technical presentation wherever possible. (Author) 29 refs

Computer program determines chemical composition of physical system at equilibrium

Science.gov (United States)

Kwong, S. S.

1966-01-01

FORTRAN 4 digital computer program calculates equilibrium composition of complex, multiphase chemical systems. This is a free energy minimization method with solution of the problem reduced to mathematical operations, without concern for the chemistry involved. Also certain thermodynamic properties are determined as byproducts of the main calculations.

Statistical mechanics

CERN Document Server

Davidson, Norman

2003-01-01

Clear and readable, this fine text assists students in achieving a grasp of the techniques and limitations of statistical mechanics. The treatment follows a logical progression from elementary to advanced theories, with careful attention to detail and mathematical development, and is sufficiently rigorous for introductory or intermediate graduate courses.Beginning with a study of the statistical mechanics of ideal gases and other systems of non-interacting particles, the text develops the theory in detail and applies it to the study of chemical equilibrium and the calculation of the thermody

Statistical Analysis of Hubble/WFC3 Transit Spectroscopy of Extrasolar Planets

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Guangwei; Deming, Drake; Knutson, Heather; Madhusudhan, Nikku; Mandell, Avi; Fraine, Jonathan

2018-01-01

Transmission spectroscopy provides a window to study exoplanetary atmospheres, but that window is fogged by clouds and hazes. Clouds and haze introduce a degeneracy between the strength of gaseous absorption features and planetary physical parameters such as abundances. One way to break that degeneracy is via statistical studies. We collect all published HST/WFC3 transit spectra for 1.1-1.65 micron water vapor absorption, and perform a statistical study on potential correlations between the water absorption feature and planetary parameters. We fit the observed spectra with a template calculated for each planet using the Exo-Transmit code. We express the magnitude of the water absorption in scale heights, thereby removing the known dependence on temperature, surface gravity, and mean molecular weight. We find that the absorption in scale heights has a positive baseline correlation with planetary equilibrium temperature; our hypothesis is that decreasing cloud condensation with increasing temperature is responsible for this baseline slope. However, the observed sample is also intrinsically degenerate in the sense that equilibrium temperature correlates with planetary mass. We compile the distribution of absorption in scale heights, and we find that this distribution is closer to log-normal than Gaussian. However, we also find that the distribution of equilibrium temperatures for the observed planets is similarly log-normal. This indicates that the absorption values are affected by observational bias, whereby observers have not yet targeted a sufficient sample of the hottest planets.

Statistical Analysis of Hubble /WFC3 Transit Spectroscopy of Extrasolar Planets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fu, Guangwei; Deming, Drake [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Knutson, Heather [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Madhusudhan, Nikku [Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom); Mandell, Avi [Planetary Systems Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Fraine, Jonathan, E-mail: gfu@astro.umd.edu [Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)

2017-10-01

Transmission spectroscopy provides a window to study exoplanetary atmospheres, but that window is fogged by clouds and hazes. Clouds and haze introduce a degeneracy between the strength of gaseous absorption features and planetary physical parameters such as abundances. One way to break that degeneracy is via statistical studies. We collect all published HST /WFC3 transit spectra for 1.1–1.65 μ m water vapor absorption and perform a statistical study on potential correlations between the water absorption feature and planetary parameters. We fit the observed spectra with a template calculated for each planet using the Exo-transmit code. We express the magnitude of the water absorption in scale heights, thereby removing the known dependence on temperature, surface gravity, and mean molecular weight. We find that the absorption in scale heights has a positive baseline correlation with planetary equilibrium temperature; our hypothesis is that decreasing cloud condensation with increasing temperature is responsible for this baseline slope. However, the observed sample is also intrinsically degenerate in the sense that equilibrium temperature correlates with planetary mass. We compile the distribution of absorption in scale heights, and we find that this distribution is closer to log-normal than Gaussian. However, we also find that the distribution of equilibrium temperatures for the observed planets is similarly log-normal. This indicates that the absorption values are affected by observational bias, whereby observers have not yet targeted a sufficient sample of the hottest planets.

Statistical Analysis of Hubble /WFC3 Transit Spectroscopy of Extrasolar Planets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fu, Guangwei; Deming, Drake; Knutson, Heather; Madhusudhan, Nikku; Mandell, Avi; Fraine, Jonathan

2017-01-01

Transmission spectroscopy provides a window to study exoplanetary atmospheres, but that window is fogged by clouds and hazes. Clouds and haze introduce a degeneracy between the strength of gaseous absorption features and planetary physical parameters such as abundances. One way to break that degeneracy is via statistical studies. We collect all published HST /WFC3 transit spectra for 1.1–1.65 μ m water vapor absorption and perform a statistical study on potential correlations between the water absorption feature and planetary parameters. We fit the observed spectra with a template calculated for each planet using the Exo-transmit code. We express the magnitude of the water absorption in scale heights, thereby removing the known dependence on temperature, surface gravity, and mean molecular weight. We find that the absorption in scale heights has a positive baseline correlation with planetary equilibrium temperature; our hypothesis is that decreasing cloud condensation with increasing temperature is responsible for this baseline slope. However, the observed sample is also intrinsically degenerate in the sense that equilibrium temperature correlates with planetary mass. We compile the distribution of absorption in scale heights, and we find that this distribution is closer to log-normal than Gaussian. However, we also find that the distribution of equilibrium temperatures for the observed planets is similarly log-normal. This indicates that the absorption values are affected by observational bias, whereby observers have not yet targeted a sufficient sample of the hottest planets.

A New Approach to Monte Carlo Simulations in Statistical Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Landau, David P.

2002-08-01

Monte Carlo simulations [1] have become a powerful tool for the study of diverse problems in statistical/condensed matter physics. Standard methods sample the probability distribution for the states of the system, most often in the canonical ensemble, and over the past several decades enormous improvements have been made in performance. Nonetheless, difficulties arise near phase transitions-due to critical slowing down near 2nd order transitions and to metastability near 1st order transitions, and these complications limit the applicability of the method. We shall describe a new Monte Carlo approach [2] that uses a random walk in energy space to determine the density of states directly. Once the density of states is known, all thermodynamic properties can be calculated. This approach can be extended to multi-dimensional parameter spaces and should be effective for systems with complex energy landscapes, e.g., spin glasses, protein folding models, etc. Generalizations should produce a broadly applicable optimization tool. 1. A Guide to Monte Carlo Simulations in Statistical Physics, D. P. Landau and K. Binder (Cambridge U. Press, Cambridge, 2000). 2. Fugao Wang and D. P. Landau, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2050 (2001); Phys. Rev. E64, 056101-1 (2001).

Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Wen-Jong; Hu, Chin-Kun

2017-06-08

Many human or animal diseases are related to aggregation of proteins. A viable biological organism should maintain in non-equilibrium states. How protein aggregate and why biological organisms can maintain in non-equilibrium states are not well understood. As a first step to understand such complex systems problems, we consider simple model systems containing polymer chains and solvent particles. The strength of the spring to connect two neighboring monomers in a polymer chain is controlled by a parameter s with s → ∞ for rigid-bond. The strengths of bending and torsion angle dependent interactions are controlled by a parameter s A with s A  → -∞ corresponding to no bending and torsion angle dependent interactions. We find that for very small s A , polymer chains tend to aggregate spontaneously and the trend is independent of the strength of spring. For strong springs, the speed distribution of monomers in the parallel (along the direction of the spring to connect two neighboring monomers) and perpendicular directions have different effective temperatures and such systems are in non-equilibrium states.

Statistical Physics Approaches to RNA Editing

Science.gov (United States)

Bundschuh, Ralf

2012-02-01

The central dogma of molecular Biology states that DNA is transcribed base by base into RNA which is in turn translated into proteins. However, some organisms edit their RNA before translation by inserting, deleting, or substituting individual or short stretches of bases. In many instances the mechanisms by which an organism recognizes the positions at which to edit or by which it performs the actual editing are unknown. One model system that stands out by its very high rate of on average one out of 25 bases being edited are the Myxomycetes, a class of slime molds. In this talk we will show how the computational methods and concepts from statistical Physics can be used to analyze DNA and protein sequence data to predict editing sites in these slime molds and to guide experiments that identified previously unknown types of editing as well as the complete set of editing events in the slime mold Physarum polycephalum.

Statistical Physics Approaches to Microbial Ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Mehta, Pankaj

The unprecedented ability to quantitatively measure and probe complex microbial communities has renewed interest in identifying the fundamental ecological principles governing community ecology in microbial ecosystems. Here, we present work from our group and others showing how ideas from statistical physics can help us uncover these ecological principles. Two major lessons emerge from this work. First, large, ecosystems with many species often display new, emergent ecological behaviors that are absent in small ecosystems with just a few species. To paraphrase Nobel laureate Phil Anderson, ''More is Different'', especially in community ecology. Second, the lack of trophic layer separation in microbial ecology fundamentally distinguishes microbial ecology from classical paradigms of community ecology and leads to qualitative different rules for community assembly in microbes. I illustrate these ideas using both theoretical modeling and novel new experiments on large microbial ecosystems performed by our collaborators (Joshua Goldford and Alvaro Sanchez). Work supported by Simons Investigator in MMLS and NIH R35 R35 GM119461.

Equilibrium statistical mechanics on correlated random graphs

Science.gov (United States)

Barra, Adriano; Agliari, Elena

2011-02-01

Biological and social networks have recently attracted great attention from physicists. Among several aspects, two main ones may be stressed: a non-trivial topology of the graph describing the mutual interactions between agents and, typically, imitative, weighted, interactions. Despite such aspects being widely accepted and empirically confirmed, the schemes currently exploited in order to generate the expected topology are based on a priori assumptions and, in most cases, implement constant intensities for links. Here we propose a simple shift [-1,+1]\\to [0,+1] in the definition of patterns in a Hopfield model: a straightforward effect is the conversion of frustration into dilution. In fact, we show that by varying the bias of pattern distribution, the network topology (generated by the reciprocal affinities among agents, i.e. the Hebbian rule) crosses various well-known regimes, ranging from fully connected, to an extreme dilution scenario, then to completely disconnected. These features, as well as small-world properties, are, in this context, emergent and no longer imposed a priori. The model is throughout investigated also from a thermodynamics perspective: the Ising model defined on the resulting graph is analytically solved (at a replica symmetric level) by extending the double stochastic stability technique, and presented together with its fluctuation theory for a picture of criticality. Overall, our findings show that, at least at equilibrium, dilution (of whatever kind) simply decreases the strength of the coupling felt by the spins, but leaves the paramagnetic/ferromagnetic flavors unchanged. The main difference with respect to previous investigations is that, within our approach, replicas do not appear: instead of (multi)-overlaps as order parameters, we introduce a class of magnetizations on all the possible subgraphs belonging to the main one investigated: as a consequence, for these objects a closure for a self-consistent relation is achieved.

Equilibrium statistical mechanics on correlated random graphs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barra, Adriano; Agliari, Elena

2011-01-01

Biological and social networks have recently attracted great attention from physicists. Among several aspects, two main ones may be stressed: a non-trivial topology of the graph describing the mutual interactions between agents and, typically, imitative, weighted, interactions. Despite such aspects being widely accepted and empirically confirmed, the schemes currently exploited in order to generate the expected topology are based on a priori assumptions and, in most cases, implement constant intensities for links. Here we propose a simple shift [-1,+1]→[0,+1] in the definition of patterns in a Hopfield model: a straightforward effect is the conversion of frustration into dilution. In fact, we show that by varying the bias of pattern distribution, the network topology (generated by the reciprocal affinities among agents, i.e. the Hebbian rule) crosses various well-known regimes, ranging from fully connected, to an extreme dilution scenario, then to completely disconnected. These features, as well as small-world properties, are, in this context, emergent and no longer imposed a priori. The model is throughout investigated also from a thermodynamics perspective: the Ising model defined on the resulting graph is analytically solved (at a replica symmetric level) by extending the double stochastic stability technique, and presented together with its fluctuation theory for a picture of criticality. Overall, our findings show that, at least at equilibrium, dilution (of whatever kind) simply decreases the strength of the coupling felt by the spins, but leaves the paramagnetic/ferromagnetic flavors unchanged. The main difference with respect to previous investigations is that, within our approach, replicas do not appear: instead of (multi)-overlaps as order parameters, we introduce a class of magnetizations on all the possible subgraphs belonging to the main one investigated: as a consequence, for these objects a closure for a self-consistent relation is achieved

Equilibrium moisture content of OSB panels produced with veneer inclusion and different types of adhesive

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lourival Marin Mendes

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to evaluate different statistical models to estimate the equilibrium moisture content of OSB panels exposed to different conditions of air temperature and relative humidity, And also to evaluate the influence of the adhesive and veneer inclusion in the equilibrium moisture content. The panels were produced with three different adhesive types (phenol-formaldehyde - FF, melamine-urea-formaldehyde - MUF, and phenol-melamine-urea-formaldehyde - PMUF and with and without veneer inclusion. The evaluation of the equilibrium moisture content of the panels was carried out at temperatures of 30, 40 and 50°C and relative humidity of 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90%. The modeling of equilibrium moisture content was performed using the statistical non-linear and polynomial models. In general, the polynomial models are most indicated for determining the equilibrium moisture content of OSB. The models adjusted only with air relative humidity presented the best precision measurements. The type of adhesive affected the equilibrium moisture content of the panels, being observed for adhesives PMUF and FF the same trend of variation, and the highest values obtained for the panels produced with adhesive MUF. The veneer inclusion decreased the equilibrium moisture content only in the panels with MUF adhesive.

Theory of chemical equilibrium in a lattice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dietrich, K.; Dufour, M.; Balazs, N.L.

1989-01-01

The chemical equilibrium is studied for the reaction A+B↔C, assuming that, initially, the particles B form a lattice and the particles A are statistically distributed on interstices. A mass action law is derived which defines the numbers n A , n B , n C of particles A, B, C in the chemical equilibrium assuming the initial distribution to be known. It predicts a considerably larger number n C of fused particles C compared to the mass action law for the gaseous phase. The result holds for an ordinary as well as for a nuclear lattice. Its possible relevance for the production of proton-rich isotopes in the universe is discussed. (orig.)

Non-equilibrium Dynamics, Thermalization and Entropy Production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hinrichsen, Haye; Janotta, Peter; Gogolin, Christian

2011-01-01

This paper addresses fundamental aspects of statistical mechanics such as the motivation of a classical state space with spontaneous transitions, the meaning of non-equilibrium in the context of thermalization, and the justification of these concepts from the quantum-mechanical point of view. After an introductory part we focus on the problem of entropy production in non-equilibrium systems. In particular, the generally accepted formula for entropy production in the environment is analyzed from a critical perspective. It is shown that this formula is only valid in the limit of separated time scales of the system's and the environmental degrees of freedom. Finally, we present an alternative simple proof of the fluctuation theorem.

Competitive agents in a market: Statistical physics of the minority game

Science.gov (United States)

Sherrington, David

2007-10-01

A brief review is presented of the minority game, a simple frustrated many-body system stimulated by considerations of a market of competitive speculative agents. Its cooperative behaviour exhibits phase transitions and both ergodic and non-ergodic regimes. It provides novel challenges to statistical physics, reminiscent of those of mean-field spin glasses.

Numerical solutions of ideal quantum gas dynamical flows governed by semiclassical ellipsoidal-statistical distribution.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jaw-Yen; Yan, Chih-Yuan; Diaz, Manuel; Huang, Juan-Chen; Li, Zhihui; Zhang, Hanxin

2014-01-08

The ideal quantum gas dynamics as manifested by the semiclassical ellipsoidal-statistical (ES) equilibrium distribution derived in Wu et al. (Wu et al . 2012 Proc. R. Soc. A 468 , 1799-1823 (doi:10.1098/rspa.2011.0673)) is numerically studied for particles of three statistics. This anisotropic ES equilibrium distribution was derived using the maximum entropy principle and conserves the mass, momentum and energy, but differs from the standard Fermi-Dirac or Bose-Einstein distribution. The present numerical method combines the discrete velocity (or momentum) ordinate method in momentum space and the high-resolution shock-capturing method in physical space. A decoding procedure to obtain the necessary parameters for determining the ES distribution is also devised. Computations of two-dimensional Riemann problems are presented, and various contours of the quantities unique to this ES model are illustrated. The main flow features, such as shock waves, expansion waves and slip lines and their complex nonlinear interactions, are depicted and found to be consistent with existing calculations for a classical gas.

Numerical solutions of ideal quantum gas dynamical flows governed by semiclassical ellipsoidal-statistical distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jaw-Yen; Yan, Chih-Yuan; Diaz, Manuel; Huang, Juan-Chen; Li, Zhihui; Zhang, Hanxin

2014-01-01

The ideal quantum gas dynamics as manifested by the semiclassical ellipsoidal-statistical (ES) equilibrium distribution derived in Wu et al. (Wu et al. 2012 Proc. R. Soc. A 468, 1799–1823 (doi:10.1098/rspa.2011.0673)) is numerically studied for particles of three statistics. This anisotropic ES equilibrium distribution was derived using the maximum entropy principle and conserves the mass, momentum and energy, but differs from the standard Fermi–Dirac or Bose–Einstein distribution. The present numerical method combines the discrete velocity (or momentum) ordinate method in momentum space and the high-resolution shock-capturing method in physical space. A decoding procedure to obtain the necessary parameters for determining the ES distribution is also devised. Computations of two-dimensional Riemann problems are presented, and various contours of the quantities unique to this ES model are illustrated. The main flow features, such as shock waves, expansion waves and slip lines and their complex nonlinear interactions, are depicted and found to be consistent with existing calculations for a classical gas. PMID:24399919

Statistical mechanics rigorous results

CERN Document Server

Ruelle, David

1999-01-01

This classic book marks the beginning of an era of vigorous mathematical progress in equilibrium statistical mechanics. Its treatment of the infinite system limit has not been superseded, and the discussion of thermodynamic functions and states remains basic for more recent work. The conceptual foundation provided by the Rigorous Results remains invaluable for the study of the spectacular developments of statistical mechanics in the second half of the 20th century.

Nonequilibrium statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Röpke, Gerd

2013-01-01

Authored by one of the top theoretical physicists in Germany, and a well-known authority in the field, this is the only coherent presentation of the subject suitable for masters and PhD students, as well as postdocs in physics and related disciplines.Starting from a general discussion of the nonequilibrium state, different standard approaches such as master equations, and kinetic and linear response theory, are derived after special assumptions. This allows for an insight into the problems of nonequilibrium physics, a discussion of the limits, and suggestions for improvements. Applications

Safety bey statistics? A critical view on statistical methods applied in health physics; Sicherheit durch Statistik? Ein kritischer Blick auf die Anwendung statistischer Methoden im Strahlenschutz

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kraut, W. [Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg (DHBW), Karlsruhe (Germany). Studiengang Sicherheitswesen

2016-07-01

The only proper way to describe uncertainties in health physics is by statistical means. But statistics never can replace Your personal evaluation of effect, nor can statistics transmute randomness into certainty like an ''uncertainty laundry''. The paper discusses these problems in routine practical work.

Thermodynamic quantities and defect equilibrium in La2-xSrxNiO4+δ

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakamura, Takashi; Yashiro, Keiji; Sato, Kazuhisa; Mizusaki, Junichiro

2009-01-01

In order to elucidate the relation between thermodynamic quantities, the defect structure, and the defect equilibrium in La 2-x Sr x NiO 4+δ , statistical thermodynamic calculation is carried out and calculated results are compared to those obtained from experimental data. Partial molar enthalpy of oxygen and partial molar entropy of oxygen are obtained from δ-P(O 2 )-T relation by using Gibbs-Helmholtz equation. Statistical thermodynamic model is derived from defect equilibrium models proposed before by authors, localized electron model and delocalized electron model which could well explain the variation of oxygen content of La 2-x Sr x NiO 4+δ . Although assumed defect species and their equilibrium are different, the results of thermodynamic calculation by localized electron model and delocalized electron model show minor difference. Calculated results by the both models agree with the thermodynamic quantities obtained from oxygen nonstoichiometry of La 2-x Sr x NiO 4+δ . - Graphical abstract: In order to elucidate the relation between thermodynamic quantities, the defect structure, and the defect equilibrium in La 2-x Sr x NiO 4+δ , statistics thermodynamic calculation is carried out and calculated results are compared to those obtained from experimental data.

Non-equilibrium scaling analysis of the Kondo model with voltage bias

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fritsch, Peter; Kehrein, Stefan

2009-01-01

The quintessential description of Kondo physics in equilibrium is obtained within a scaling picture that shows the buildup of Kondo screening at low temperature. For the non-equilibrium Kondo model with a voltage bias, the key new feature are decoherence effects due to the current across the impurity. In the present paper, we show how one can develop a consistent framework for studying the non-equilibrium Kondo model within a scaling picture of infinitesimal unitary transformations (flow equations). Decoherence effects appear naturally in third order of the β-function and dominate the Hamiltonian flow for sufficiently large voltage bias. We work out the spin dynamics in non-equilibrium and compare it with finite temperature equilibrium results. In particular, we report on the behavior of the static spin susceptibility including leading logarithmic corrections and compare it with the celebrated equilibrium result as a function of temperature.

Micro-foundations for macroeconomics: New set-up based on statistical physics

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshikawa, Hiroshi

2016-12-01

Modern macroeconomics is built on "micro foundations." Namely, optimization of micro agent such as consumer and firm is explicitly analyzed in model. Toward this goal, standard model presumes "the representative" consumer/firm, and analyzes its behavior in detail. However, the macroeconomy consists of 107 consumers and 106 firms. For the purpose of analyzing such macro system, it is meaningless to pursue the micro behavior in detail. In this respect, there is no essential difference between economics and physics. The method of statistical physics can be usefully applied to the macroeconomy, and provides Keynesian economics with correct micro-foundations.

Student Understanding of Liquid-Vapor Phase Equilibrium

Science.gov (United States)

Boudreaux, Andrew; Campbell, Craig

2012-01-01

Student understanding of the equilibrium coexistence of a liquid and its vapor was the subject of an extended investigation. Written assessment questions were administered to undergraduates enrolled in introductory physics and chemistry courses. Responses have been analyzed to document conceptual and reasoning difficulties in sufficient detail to…

A Progression of Static Equilibrium Laboratory Exercises

Science.gov (United States)

Kutzner, Mickey; Kutzner, Andrew

2013-01-01

Although simple architectural structures like bridges, catwalks, cantilevers, and Stonehenge have been integral in human societies for millennia, as have levers and other simple tools, modern students of introductory physics continue to grapple with Newton's conditions for static equilibrium. As formulated in typical introductory physics…

Quasilocal equilibrium condition for black ring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Astefanesei, Dumitru; Rodriguez, Maria J.; Theisen, Stefan

2009-01-01

We use the conservation of the renormalized boundary stress-energy tensor to obtain the equilibrium condition for a general (thin or fat) black ring solution. We also investigate the role of the spatial stress in the thermodynamics of deformation within the quasilocal formalism of Brown and York and discuss the relation with other methods. In particular, we discuss the quantum statistical relation for the unbalanced black ring solution.

Application of statistical physics approaches to complex organizations

Science.gov (United States)

Matia, Kaushik

The first part of this thesis studies two different kinds of financial markets, namely, the stock market and the commodity market. Stock price fluctuations display certain scale-free statistical features that are not unlike those found in strongly-interacting physical systems. The possibility that new insights can be gained using concepts and methods developed to understand scale-free physical phenomena has stimulated considerable research activity in the physics community. In the first part of this thesis a comparative study of stocks and commodities is performed in terms of probability density function and correlations of stock price fluctuations. It is found that the probability density of the stock price fluctuation has a power law functional form with an exponent 3, which is similar across different markets around the world. We present an autoregressive model to explain the origin of the power law functional form of the probability density function of the price fluctuation. The first part also presents the discovery of unique features of the Indian economy, which we find displays a scale-dependent probability density function. In the second part of this thesis we quantify the statistical properties of fluctuations of complex systems like business firms and world scientific publications. We analyze class size of these systems mentioned above where units agglomerate to form classes. We find that the width of the probability density function of growth rate decays with the class size as a power law with an exponent beta which is universal in the sense that beta is independent of the system studied. We also identify two other scaling exponents, gamma connecting the unit size to the class size and gamma connecting the number of units to the class size, where products are units and firms are classes. Finally we propose a generalized preferential attachment model to describe the class size distribution. This model is successful in explaining the growth rate and class

Module description of TOKAMAK equilibrium code MEUDAS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suzuki, Masaei; Hayashi, Nobuhiko; Matsumoto, Taro; Ozeki, Takahisa [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Naka, Ibaraki (Japan). Naka Fusion Research Establishment

2002-01-01

The analysis of an axisymmetric MHD equilibrium serves as a foundation of TOKAMAK researches, such as a design of devices and theoretical research, the analysis of experiment result. For this reason, also in JAERI, an efficient MHD analysis code has been developed from start of TOKAMAK research. The free boundary equilibrium code ''MEUDAS'' which uses both the DCR method (Double-Cyclic-Reduction Method) and a Green's function can specify the pressure and the current distribution arbitrarily, and has been applied to the analysis of a broad physical subject as a code having rapidity and high precision. Also the MHD convergence calculation technique in ''MEUDAS'' has been built into various newly developed codes. This report explains in detail each module in ''MEUDAS'' for performing convergence calculation in solving the MHD equilibrium. (author)

Zeno dynamics in quantum statistical mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmidt, Andreas U

2003-01-01

We study the quantum Zeno effect in quantum statistical mechanics within the operator algebraic framework. We formulate a condition for the appearance of the effect in W*-dynamical systems, in terms of the short-time behaviour of the dynamics. Examples of quantum spin systems show that this condition can be effectively applied to quantum statistical mechanical models. Furthermore, we derive an explicit form of the Zeno generator, and use it to construct Gibbs equilibrium states for the Zeno dynamics. As a concrete example, we consider the X-Y model, for which we show that a frequent measurement at a microscopic level, e.g. a single lattice site, can produce a macroscopic effect in changing the global equilibrium

Thermodynamic formalism the mathematical structures of equilibrium statistical mechanics

CERN Document Server

Ruelle, David

2004-01-01

Reissued in the Cambridge Mathematical Library, this classic book outlines the theory of thermodynamic formalism which was developed to describe the properties of certain physical systems consisting of a large number of subunits. Background material on physics has been collected in appendices to help the reader. Supplementary work is provided in the form of exercises and problems that were "open" at the original time of writing.

Equilibrium and non-equilibrium phenomena in arcs and torches

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mullen, van der J.J.A.M.

2000-01-01

A general treatment of non-equilibrium plasma aspects is obtained by relating transport fluxes to equilibrium restoring processes in so-called disturbed Bilateral Relations. The (non) equilibrium stage of a small microwave induced plasma serves as case study.

Non-equilibrium coherence dynamics in one-dimensional Bose gases.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofferberth, S; Lesanovsky, I; Fischer, B; Schumm, T; Schmiedmayer, J

2007-09-20

Low-dimensional systems provide beautiful examples of many-body quantum physics. For one-dimensional (1D) systems, the Luttinger liquid approach provides insight into universal properties. Much is known of the equilibrium state, both in the weakly and strongly interacting regimes. However, it remains a challenge to probe the dynamics by which this equilibrium state is reached. Here we present a direct experimental study of the coherence dynamics in both isolated and coupled degenerate 1D Bose gases. Dynamic splitting is used to create two 1D systems in a phase coherent state. The time evolution of the coherence is revealed through local phase shifts of the subsequently observed interference patterns. Completely isolated 1D Bose gases are observed to exhibit universal sub-exponential coherence decay, in excellent agreement with recent predictions. For two coupled 1D Bose gases, the coherence factor is observed to approach a non-zero equilibrium value, as predicted by a Bogoliubov approach. This coupled-system decay to finite coherence is the matter wave equivalent of phase-locking two lasers by injection. The non-equilibrium dynamics of superfluids has an important role in a wide range of physical systems, such as superconductors, quantum Hall systems, superfluid helium and spin systems. Our experiments studying coherence dynamics show that 1D Bose gases are ideally suited for investigating this class of phenomena.

Conformational stability and self-association equilibrium in biologics.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarkson, Benjamin R; Schön, Arne; Freire, Ernesto

2016-02-01

Biologics exist in equilibrium between native, partially denatured, and denatured conformational states. The population of any of these states is dictated by their Gibbs energy and can be altered by changes in physical and solution conditions. Some conformations have a tendency to self-associate and aggregate, an undesirable phenomenon in protein therapeutics. Conformational equilibrium and self-association are linked thermodynamic functions. Given that any associative reaction is concentration dependent, conformational stability studies performed at different protein concentrations can provide early clues to future aggregation problems. This analysis can be applied to the selection of protein variants or the identification of better formulation solutions. In this review, we discuss three different aggregation situations and their manifestation in the observed conformational equilibrium of a protein. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparisons between physics-based, engineering, and statistical learning models for outdoor sound propagation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Carl R; Reznicek, Nathan J; Wilson, D Keith; Pettit, Chris L; Nykaza, Edward T

2016-05-01

Many outdoor sound propagation models exist, ranging from highly complex physics-based simulations to simplified engineering calculations, and more recently, highly flexible statistical learning methods. Several engineering and statistical learning models are evaluated by using a particular physics-based model, namely, a Crank-Nicholson parabolic equation (CNPE), as a benchmark. Narrowband transmission loss values predicted with the CNPE, based upon a simulated data set of meteorological, boundary, and source conditions, act as simulated observations. In the simulated data set sound propagation conditions span from downward refracting to upward refracting, for acoustically hard and soft boundaries, and low frequencies. Engineering models used in the comparisons include the ISO 9613-2 method, Harmonoise, and Nord2000 propagation models. Statistical learning methods used in the comparisons include bagged decision tree regression, random forest regression, boosting regression, and artificial neural network models. Computed skill scores are relative to sound propagation in a homogeneous atmosphere over a rigid ground. Overall skill scores for the engineering noise models are 0.6%, -7.1%, and 83.8% for the ISO 9613-2, Harmonoise, and Nord2000 models, respectively. Overall skill scores for the statistical learning models are 99.5%, 99.5%, 99.6%, and 99.6% for bagged decision tree, random forest, boosting, and artificial neural network regression models, respectively.

Topics in statistical data analysis for high-energy physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cowan, G.

2011-01-01

These lectures concert two topics that are becoming increasingly important in the analysis of high-energy physics data: Bayesian statistics and multivariate methods. In the Bayesian approach, we extend the interpretation of probability not only to cover the frequency of repeatable outcomes but also to include a degree of belief. In this way we are able to associate probability with a hypothesis and thus to answer directly questions that cannot be addressed easily with traditional frequentist methods. In multivariate analysis, we try to exploit as much information as possible from the characteristics that we measure for each event to distinguish between event types. In particular we will look at a method that has gained popularity in high-energy physics in recent years: the boosted decision tree. Finally, we give a brief sketch of how multivariate methods may be applied in a search for a new signal process. (author)

Modelling non-equilibrium thermodynamic systems from the speed-gradient principle.

Science.gov (United States)

Khantuleva, Tatiana A; Shalymov, Dmitry S

2017-03-06

The application of the speed-gradient (SG) principle to the non-equilibrium distribution systems far away from thermodynamic equilibrium is investigated. The options for applying the SG principle to describe the non-equilibrium transport processes in real-world environments are discussed. Investigation of a non-equilibrium system's evolution at different scale levels via the SG principle allows for a fresh look at the thermodynamics problems associated with the behaviour of the system entropy. Generalized dynamic equations for finite and infinite number of constraints are proposed. It is shown that the stationary solution to the equations, resulting from the SG principle, entirely coincides with the locally equilibrium distribution function obtained by Zubarev. A new approach to describe time evolution of systems far from equilibrium is proposed based on application of the SG principle at the intermediate scale level of the system's internal structure. The problem of the high-rate shear flow of viscous fluid near the rigid plane plate is discussed. It is shown that the SG principle allows closed mathematical models of non-equilibrium processes to be constructed.This article is part of the themed issue 'Horizons of cybernetical physics'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Static Equilibrium Configurations of Charged Metallic Bodies ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this paper we developed a simple numerical scheme to determine the static equilibrium configuration of charged metallic bodies by minimizing the potential energy function. The method developed has some advantages; it combines the general theory and the physical meanings nested in the mathematical model and this ...

STATISTICAL CHALLENGES FOR SEARCHES FOR NEW PHYSICS AT THE LHC.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

CRANMER, K.

2005-09-12

Because the emphasis of the LHC is on 5{sigma} discoveries and the LHC environment induces high systematic errors, many of the common statistical procedures used in High Energy Physics are not adequate. I review the basic ingredients of LHC searches, the sources of systematics, and the performance of several methods. Finally, I indicate the methods that seem most promising for the LHC and areas that are in need of further study.

On nonlinear statistical thermodynamics of boundary plasma with postactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Temko, S.W.; Temko, K.W.; Kuz'min, S.K.

1992-01-01

The authors use the statistical thermodynamics of small systems proposed before their publications for boundary weakly ionized plasma with postaction. Boundary properties of the plasma is taken into account by two ways: (1) suppose that only small number of very quick particles are able to leave the cloud having done entrance into outer medium work; (2) take into account the interaction between particles and inner surface of the cloud. Interactions in the boundary plasma are described by corresponding potential functions. The potential functions are mathematical models of real interactions in boundary plasma. Choosing of potential functions, their numerical parameters, geometrical form and dimensions of the cloud is made by using the methods of optimal experiment planning, maximum likelihood and computer experiment. Free energy of the cloud is a likelihood function. State of boundary plasma with admixtures is described by vector-density of particles distribution. Term ''distribution'' is used here in Sobolev-Schwartc sense. The authors obtain the vector-density of particles distribution in cloud which gives the condition minimum of free energy for every time moment under quasistatistical equilibrium. The system of conditions for free energy conditional minimizing for every time moment includes integral equilibrium equations, ''non-hard normalization'' and additional conditions taken as a result of analyzing physical and physical-chemical nature of boundary plasma. To obtain conditional minimum of free energy it is necessary to solve the system of conditions. First of all they solve equilibrium problem by the authors method. They obtain vector-density of particles distribution in the cloud. Then using method of random walk with postaction between sets of random walk process they build distribution function of random vector-density

Thermodynamics of the Rhodamine B Lactone--Zwitterion Equilibrium.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinckley, Daniel A.; Seybold, Paul G.

1987-01-01

Discusses the benefits of thermochromic transformations for studying thermodynamic properties. Describes an experiment that uses a commercially available dye, attains equilibrium rapidly, employs a simple, single-beam spectrophotometer, and is suitable for both physical chemistry and introductory chemistry laboratories. (TW)

Inverse statistical physics of protein sequences: a key issues review.

Science.gov (United States)

Cocco, Simona; Feinauer, Christoph; Figliuzzi, Matteo; Monasson, Rémi; Weigt, Martin

2018-03-01

In the course of evolution, proteins undergo important changes in their amino acid sequences, while their three-dimensional folded structure and their biological function remain remarkably conserved. Thanks to modern sequencing techniques, sequence data accumulate at unprecedented pace. This provides large sets of so-called homologous, i.e. evolutionarily related protein sequences, to which methods of inverse statistical physics can be applied. Using sequence data as the basis for the inference of Boltzmann distributions from samples of microscopic configurations or observables, it is possible to extract information about evolutionary constraints and thus protein function and structure. Here we give an overview over some biologically important questions, and how statistical-mechanics inspired modeling approaches can help to answer them. Finally, we discuss some open questions, which we expect to be addressed over the next years.

Simulating metabolism with statistical thermodynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cannon, William R

2014-01-01

New methods are needed for large scale modeling of metabolism that predict metabolite levels and characterize the thermodynamics of individual reactions and pathways. Current approaches use either kinetic simulations, which are difficult to extend to large networks of reactions because of the need for rate constants, or flux-based methods, which have a large number of feasible solutions because they are unconstrained by the law of mass action. This report presents an alternative modeling approach based on statistical thermodynamics. The principles of this approach are demonstrated using a simple set of coupled reactions, and then the system is characterized with respect to the changes in energy, entropy, free energy, and entropy production. Finally, the physical and biochemical insights that this approach can provide for metabolism are demonstrated by application to the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle of Escherichia coli. The reaction and pathway thermodynamics are evaluated and predictions are made regarding changes in concentration of TCA cycle intermediates due to 10- and 100-fold changes in the ratio of NAD+:NADH concentrations. Finally, the assumptions and caveats regarding the use of statistical thermodynamics to model non-equilibrium reactions are discussed.

Statistical panorama of female physics graduate students for 2000-2010 in Peru

Science.gov (United States)

Cerón Loayza, María Luisa; Bravo Cabrejos, Jorge Aurelio

2013-03-01

We report the results of a statistical study on the number of women entering the undergraduate and master's programs of physics at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru. From 2006 through 2010, 13 female students entered the master's degree program but no females graduated with the degree. Considering that Peru is a developing country, a career in physics is not considered an attractive professional choice even for male students because it is thought that there are no work centers to practice this profession. We recommend that the causes preventing female physics students from completing their studies and research work be analyzed, and that strategies be planned to help women complete their academic work. We are considering getting help from the Peruvian Physics Society (SOPERFI) in order to draw more attention for our plan.

On the statistical mechanics of species abundance distributions.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowler, Michael G; Kelly, Colleen K

2012-09-01

A central issue in ecology is that of the factors determining the relative abundance of species within a natural community. The proper application of the principles of statistical physics to species abundance distributions (SADs) shows that simple ecological properties could account for the near universal features observed. These properties are (i) a limit on the number of individuals in an ecological guild and (ii) per capita birth and death rates. They underpin the neutral theory of Hubbell (2001), the master equation approach of Volkov et al. (2003, 2005) and the idiosyncratic (extreme niche) theory of Pueyo et al. (2007); they result in an underlying log series SAD, regardless of neutral or niche dynamics. The success of statistical mechanics in this application implies that communities are in dynamic equilibrium and hence that niches must be flexible and that temporal fluctuations on all sorts of scales are likely to be important in community structure. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A class of almost equilibrium states in Robertson-Walker spacetimes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kueskue, Muharrem

2008-11-06

In quantum field theory in curved spacetimes the construction of the algebra of observables of linear fields is today well understood. However, it remains a non-trivial task to construct physically meaningful states on the algebra. For instance, we are in the unsatisfactory situation that there exist no examples of states suited to describe local thermal equilibrium in a non-stationary spacetime. In this thesis, we construct a class of states for the Klein-Gordon field in Robertson-Walker spacetimes, which seem to provide the first example of thermal states in a spacetime without time translation symmetry. More precisely, in the setting of real, linear, scalar fields in Robertson-Walker spacetimes we define on the set of homogeneous, isotropic, quasi-free states a free energy functional that is based on the averaged energy density measured by an isotropic observer along his worldline. This functional is well defined and lower bounded by a suitable quantum energy inequality. Subsequently, we minimize this functional and obtain states that we interpret as 'almost equilibrium states'. It turns out that the states of low energy are the ground states of the almost equilibrium states. Finally, we prove that the almost equilibrium states satisfy the Hadamard condition, which qualifies them as physically meaningful states. (orig.)

A class of almost equilibrium states in Robertson-Walker spacetimes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kueskue, Muharrem

2008-01-01

In quantum field theory in curved spacetimes the construction of the algebra of observables of linear fields is today well understood. However, it remains a non-trivial task to construct physically meaningful states on the algebra. For instance, we are in the unsatisfactory situation that there exist no examples of states suited to describe local thermal equilibrium in a non-stationary spacetime. In this thesis, we construct a class of states for the Klein-Gordon field in Robertson-Walker spacetimes, which seem to provide the first example of thermal states in a spacetime without time translation symmetry. More precisely, in the setting of real, linear, scalar fields in Robertson-Walker spacetimes we define on the set of homogeneous, isotropic, quasi-free states a free energy functional that is based on the averaged energy density measured by an isotropic observer along his worldline. This functional is well defined and lower bounded by a suitable quantum energy inequality. Subsequently, we minimize this functional and obtain states that we interpret as 'almost equilibrium states'. It turns out that the states of low energy are the ground states of the almost equilibrium states. Finally, we prove that the almost equilibrium states satisfy the Hadamard condition, which qualifies them as physically meaningful states. (orig.)

Development of a Thermal Equilibrium Prediction Algorithm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aviles-Ramos, Cuauhtemoc

2002-01-01

A thermal equilibrium prediction algorithm is developed and tested using a heat conduction model and data sets from calorimetric measurements. The physical model used in this study is the exact solution of a system of two partial differential equations that govern the heat conduction in the calorimeter. A multi-parameter estimation technique is developed and implemented to estimate the effective volumetric heat generation and thermal diffusivity in the calorimeter measurement chamber, and the effective thermal diffusivity of the heat flux sensor. These effective properties and the exact solution are used to predict the heat flux sensor voltage readings at thermal equilibrium. Thermal equilibrium predictions are carried out considering only 20% of the total measurement time required for thermal equilibrium. A comparison of the predicted and experimental thermal equilibrium voltages shows that the average percentage error from 330 data sets is only 0.1%. The data sets used in this study come from calorimeters of different sizes that use different kinds of heat flux sensors. Furthermore, different nuclear material matrices were assayed in the process of generating these data sets. This study shows that the integration of this algorithm into the calorimeter data acquisition software will result in an 80% reduction of measurement time. This reduction results in a significant cutback in operational costs for the calorimetric assay of nuclear materials. (authors)

The new physics of non-equilibrium condensates: insights from classical dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eastham, P R [Theory of Condensed Matter, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge CB3 0HE (United Kingdom)

2007-07-25

We discuss the dynamics of classical Dicke-type models, aiming to clarify the mechanisms by which coherent states could develop in potentially non-equilibrium systems such as semiconductor microcavities. We present simulations of an undamped model which show spontaneous coherent states with persistent oscillations in the magnitude of the order parameter. These states are generalizations of superradiant ringing to the case of inhomogeneous broadening. They correspond to the persistent gap oscillations proposed in fermionic atomic condensates, and arise from a variety of initial conditions. We show that introducing randomness into the couplings can suppress the oscillations, leading to a limiting dynamics with a time-independent order parameter. This demonstrates that non-equilibrium generalizations of polariton condensates can be created even without dissipation. We explain the dynamical origins of the coherence in terms of instabilities of the normal state, and consider how it can additionally develop through scattering and dissipation.

The new physics of non-equilibrium condensates: insights from classical dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eastham, P R

2007-01-01

We discuss the dynamics of classical Dicke-type models, aiming to clarify the mechanisms by which coherent states could develop in potentially non-equilibrium systems such as semiconductor microcavities. We present simulations of an undamped model which show spontaneous coherent states with persistent oscillations in the magnitude of the order parameter. These states are generalizations of superradiant ringing to the case of inhomogeneous broadening. They correspond to the persistent gap oscillations proposed in fermionic atomic condensates, and arise from a variety of initial conditions. We show that introducing randomness into the couplings can suppress the oscillations, leading to a limiting dynamics with a time-independent order parameter. This demonstrates that non-equilibrium generalizations of polariton condensates can be created even without dissipation. We explain the dynamical origins of the coherence in terms of instabilities of the normal state, and consider how it can additionally develop through scattering and dissipation

Towards the unified non-classical physics: account for quantum fluctuations in equilibrium thermodynamics via the effective temperature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu.G.Rudoy

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of effective temperature (ET T*(T0, T is used in order to approximately "quantize" the thermodynamic functions of the dynamical object which is in the thermal equilibrium with thermal bath being at constant temperature T (T0=E0/kB, where E0 is the ground-state energy, kB - Boltzmann constant, is the characteristic ``quantum'' temperature of the system itself. On these grounds the extensive comparative investigation is carried out for the ``standard model'' of statistical mechanics - the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator (HO. Three well-known approaches are considered and their thermodynamic consequences thoroughly studied. These are: the exact quantum, or non-classical Planck-Einstein approach, intermediate, or semiclassical Bloch-Wigner approach and, finally, the pure classical, or Maxwell-Boltzmann approach.

Leaching from MSWI bottom ash: Evaluation of non-equilibrium in column percolation experiments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hyks, Jiri; Astrup, Thomas; Christensen, Thomas Højlund

2009-01-01

-equilibrium-induced changes in the solubility control. Despite both physical and chemical non-equilibrium, the Columns were found to provide adequate information for readily soluble compounds (i.e., Na, Cl-, and K) and solubility-controlled elements (i.e., Ca, SO42-, Ba, Si, Al, Zn, and Pb). The leaching Of Cu and Ni...... was shown to depend strongly on DOC leaching, which was likely affected by physical non-equilibrium during flow interruptions. Consequently, the leaching of Cu and Ni in the undisturbed Columns Was shown to be by about one order of magnitude lower compared with the interrupted column. The results indicate...... in turn appeared to be controlled by diffusion from the stagnant zone: no Mo controlling minerals were predicted by the geochemical modeling....

Combination of statistical and physically based methods to assess shallow slide susceptibility at the basin scale

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Sérgio C.; Zêzere, José L.; Lajas, Sara; Melo, Raquel

2017-07-01

Approaches used to assess shallow slide susceptibility at the basin scale are conceptually different depending on the use of statistical or physically based methods. The former are based on the assumption that the same causes are more likely to produce the same effects, whereas the latter are based on the comparison between forces which tend to promote movement along the slope and the counteracting forces that are resistant to motion. Within this general framework, this work tests two hypotheses: (i) although conceptually and methodologically distinct, the statistical and deterministic methods generate similar shallow slide susceptibility results regarding the model's predictive capacity and spatial agreement; and (ii) the combination of shallow slide susceptibility maps obtained with statistical and physically based methods, for the same study area, generate a more reliable susceptibility model for shallow slide occurrence. These hypotheses were tested at a small test site (13.9 km2) located north of Lisbon (Portugal), using a statistical method (the information value method, IV) and a physically based method (the infinite slope method, IS). The landslide susceptibility maps produced with the statistical and deterministic methods were combined into a new landslide susceptibility map. The latter was based on a set of integration rules defined by the cross tabulation of the susceptibility classes of both maps and analysis of the corresponding contingency tables. The results demonstrate a higher predictive capacity of the new shallow slide susceptibility map, which combines the independent results obtained with statistical and physically based models. Moreover, the combination of the two models allowed the identification of areas where the results of the information value and the infinite slope methods are contradictory. Thus, these areas were classified as uncertain and deserve additional investigation at a more detailed scale.

The entropy concept for non-equilibrium states.

Science.gov (United States)

Lieb, Elliott H; Yngvason, Jakob

2013-10-08

In earlier work, we presented a foundation for the second law of classical thermodynamics in terms of the entropy principle. More precisely, we provided an empirically accessible axiomatic derivation of an entropy function defined on all equilibrium states of all systems that has the appropriate additivity and scaling properties, and whose increase is a necessary and sufficient condition for an adiabatic process between two states to be possible. Here, after a brief review of this approach, we address the question of defining entropy for non-equilibrium states. Our conclusion is that it is generally not possible to find a unique entropy that has all relevant physical properties. We do show, however, that one can define two entropy functions, called S - and S + , which, taken together, delimit the range of adiabatic processes that can occur between non-equilibrium states. The concept of comparability of states with respect to adiabatic changes plays an important role in our reasoning.

Adsorption Equilibrium Equation of Carboxylic Acids on Anion-Exchange Resins in Water.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanazawa, Nobuhiro; Urano, Kohei; Kokado, Naohiro; Urushigawa, Yoshikuni

2001-06-01

The adsorption of propionic acid and benzoic acid on anion-exchange resins was analyzed, and an adsorption equilibrium equation of carboxylic acids was proposed. The adsorption of carboxylic acids on the anion-exchange resins was considered to be the sum of the physical adsorption of the molecule and the ion-exchange adsorption of the ion, which were independent of each other. For the physical adsorption of carboxylic acids, it was conformed to the Freundlich equation. For the ion-exchange adsorption of carboxylate ions, the equilibrium equation corresponded well with the experimental results for wide ranges of concentration and pH. The equation contains a selectivity coefficient S(A)(Cl) for the chloride ion versus the carboxylate ion, which was considered essentially a constant. The influent of the bicarbonate ion from carbon dioxide in air could also be expressed by the additional equilibrium equation with the selectivity coefficient S(HCO(3))(Cl) for the chloride ion versus the bicarbonate ion. Consequently, an adsorption equilibrium equation can estimate the equilibrium adsorption amounts. Even the effect of a coexisting bicarbonate ion is inconsequential when the parameters of the Freundlich isotherm equation and the selectivity coefficients of the carboxylate ion and the bicarbonate ion in each resin are determined in advance. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Einstein's statistical mechanics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baracca, A; Rechtman S, R

1985-08-01

The foundation of equilibrium classical statistical mechanics were laid down in 1902 independently by Gibbs and Einstein. The latter's contribution, developed in three papers published between 1902 and 1904, is usually forgotten and when not, rapidly dismissed as equivalent to Gibb's. We review in detail Einstein's ideas on the foundations of statistical mechanics and show that they constitute the beginning of a research program that led Einstein to quantum theory. We also show how these ideas may be used as a starting point for an introductory course on the subject.

Einstein's statistical mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baracca, A.; Rechtman S, R.

1985-01-01

The foundation of equilibrium classical statistical mechanics were laid down in 1902 independently by Gibbs and Einstein. The latter's contribution, developed in three papers published between 1902 and 1904, is usually forgotten and when not, rapidly dismissed as equivalent to Gibb's. We review in detail Einstein's ideas on the foundations of statistical mechanics and show that they constitute the beginning of a research program that led Einstein to quantum theory. We also show how these ideas may be used as a starting point for an introductory course on the subject. (author)

Towards an Industrial Application of Statistical Uncertainty Analysis Methods to Multi-physical Modelling and Safety Analyses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Jinzhao; Segurado, Jacobo; Schneidesch, Christophe

2013-01-01

Since 1980's, Tractebel Engineering (TE) has being developed and applied a multi-physical modelling and safety analyses capability, based on a code package consisting of the best estimate 3D neutronic (PANTHER), system thermal hydraulic (RELAP5), core sub-channel thermal hydraulic (COBRA-3C), and fuel thermal mechanic (FRAPCON/FRAPTRAN) codes. A series of methodologies have been developed to perform and to license the reactor safety analysis and core reload design, based on the deterministic bounding approach. Following the recent trends in research and development as well as in industrial applications, TE has been working since 2010 towards the application of the statistical sensitivity and uncertainty analysis methods to the multi-physical modelling and licensing safety analyses. In this paper, the TE multi-physical modelling and safety analyses capability is first described, followed by the proposed TE best estimate plus statistical uncertainty analysis method (BESUAM). The chosen statistical sensitivity and uncertainty analysis methods (non-parametric order statistic method or bootstrap) and tool (DAKOTA) are then presented, followed by some preliminary results of their applications to FRAPCON/FRAPTRAN simulation of OECD RIA fuel rod codes benchmark and RELAP5/MOD3.3 simulation of THTF tests. (authors)

Influence of neural adaptation on dynamics and equilibrium state of neural activities in a ring neural network

Science.gov (United States)

Takiyama, Ken

2017-12-01

How neural adaptation affects neural information processing (i.e. the dynamics and equilibrium state of neural activities) is a central question in computational neuroscience. In my previous works, I analytically clarified the dynamics and equilibrium state of neural activities in a ring-type neural network model that is widely used to model the visual cortex, motor cortex, and several other brain regions. The neural dynamics and the equilibrium state in the neural network model corresponded to a Bayesian computation and statistically optimal multiple information integration, respectively, under a biologically inspired condition. These results were revealed in an analytically tractable manner; however, adaptation effects were not considered. Here, I analytically reveal how the dynamics and equilibrium state of neural activities in a ring neural network are influenced by spike-frequency adaptation (SFA). SFA is an adaptation that causes gradual inhibition of neural activity when a sustained stimulus is applied, and the strength of this inhibition depends on neural activities. I reveal that SFA plays three roles: (1) SFA amplifies the influence of external input in neural dynamics; (2) SFA allows the history of the external input to affect neural dynamics; and (3) the equilibrium state corresponds to the statistically optimal multiple information integration independent of the existence of SFA. In addition, the equilibrium state in a ring neural network model corresponds to the statistically optimal integration of multiple information sources under biologically inspired conditions, independent of the existence of SFA.

Physical-analytical model for cesium/oxygen coadsorption on tungsten

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rasor, N.S.

1992-01-01

In this paper a physical-analytical model is formulated for computing the emission and vaporization properties of a surface immersed in a multi-species vapor. The evaporation and condensation processes are assumed to be identical to those for an equilibrium adsorbed phase in equilibrium with its vapor, permitting statistical mechanical computation of the sticking coefficient for the practical non-equilibrium condensation condition. Two classes of adsorption sites are defined corresponding to superficial and interstitial coadsorption. The work function is computed by a self-consistent summation over the dipole moments of the various coadsorbed species in their mutual electric field. The model adequately describes observed emission and evaporation from tungsten surfaces immersed in pure cesium vapor and in pure oxygen vapor. Using available and estimated properties for 17 species of cesium, oxygen, tungsten and their compounds, the computed work function for tungsten immersed in Cs/O vapor is compared with limited available experimental data, and the basic phenomenology of Cs/O coadsorption electrodes is discussed

An equilibrium for frustrated quantum spin systems in the stochastic state selection method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munehisa, Tomo; Munehisa, Yasuko

2007-01-01

We develop a new method to calculate eigenvalues in frustrated quantum spin models. It is based on the stochastic state selection (SSS) method, which is an unconventional Monte Carlo technique that we have investigated in recent years. We observe that a kind of equilibrium is realized under some conditions when we repeatedly operate a Hamiltonian and a random choice operator, which is defined by stochastic variables in the SSS method, to a trial state. In this equilibrium, which we call the SSS equilibrium, we can evaluate the lowest eigenvalue of the Hamiltonian using the statistical average of the normalization factor of the generated state. The SSS equilibrium itself has already been observed in unfrustrated models. Our study in this paper shows that we can also see the equilibrium in frustrated models, with some restriction on values of a parameter introduced in the SSS method. As a concrete example, we employ the spin-1/2 frustrated J 1 -J 2 Heisenberg model on the square lattice. We present numerical results on the 20-, 32-, and 36-site systems, which demonstrate that statistical averages of the normalization factors reproduce the known exact eigenvalue to good precision. Finally, we apply the method to the 40-site system. Then we obtain the value of the lowest energy eigenvalue with an error of less than 0.2%

Equilibrium optimization code OPEQ and results of applying it to HT-7U

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zha Xuejun; Zhu Sizheng; Yu Qingquan

2003-01-01

The plasma equilibrium configuration has a strong impact on the confinement and MHD stability in tokamaks. For designing a tokamak device, it is an important issue to determine the sites and currents of poloidal coils which have some constraint conditions from physics and engineering with a prescribed equilibrium shape of the plasma. In this paper, an effective method based on multi-variables equilibrium optimization is given. The method can optimize poloidal coils when the previously prescribed plasma parameters are treated as an object function. We apply it to HT-7U equilibrium calculation, and obtain good results

Energy flow in non-equilibrium conformal field theory

Science.gov (United States)

Bernard, Denis; Doyon, Benjamin

2012-09-01

We study the energy current and its fluctuations in quantum gapless 1d systems far from equilibrium modeled by conformal field theory, where two separated halves are prepared at distinct temperatures and glued together at a point contact. We prove that these systems converge towards steady states, and give a general description of such non-equilibrium steady states in terms of quantum field theory data. We compute the large deviation function, also called the full counting statistics, of energy transfer through the contact. These are universal and satisfy fluctuation relations. We provide a simple representation of these quantum fluctuations in terms of classical Poisson processes whose intensities are proportional to Boltzmann weights.

Introduction to the basic concepts of modern physics special relativity, quantum and statistical physics

CERN Document Server

Becchi, Carlo Maria

2016-01-01

This is the third edition of a well-received textbook on modern physics theory. This book provides an elementary but rigorous and self-contained presentation of the simplest theoretical framework that will meet the needs of undergraduate students. In addition, a number of examples of relevant applications and an appropriate list of solved problems are provided.Apart from a substantial extension of the proposed problems, the new edition provides more detailed discussion on Lorentz transformations and their group properties, a deeper treatment of quantum mechanics in a central potential, and a closer comparison of statistical mechanics in classical and in quantum physics. The first part of the book is devoted to special relativity, with a particular focus on space-time relativity and relativistic kinematics. The second part deals with Schrödinger's formulation of quantum mechanics. The presentation concerns mainly one-dimensional problems, but some three-dimensional examples are discussed in detail. The third...

Physical models of cell motility

CERN Document Server

2016-01-01

This book surveys the most recent advances in physics-inspired cell movement models. This synergetic, cross-disciplinary effort to increase the fidelity of computational algorithms will lead to a better understanding of the complex biomechanics of cell movement, and stimulate progress in research on related active matter systems, from suspensions of bacteria and synthetic swimmers to cell tissues and cytoskeleton.Cell motility and collective motion are among the most important themes in biology and statistical physics of out-of-equilibrium systems, and crucial for morphogenesis, wound healing, and immune response in eukaryotic organisms. It is also relevant for the development of effective treatment strategies for diseases such as cancer, and for the design of bioactive surfaces for cell sorting and manipulation. Substrate-based cell motility is, however, a very complex process as regulatory pathways and physical force generation mechanisms are intertwined. To understand the interplay between adhesion, force ...

Neutrino statistics: elementary problems and some applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuchowicz, B

1973-01-01

The treatment of neutrinos includes neutrinos in statistical equilibrium, mathematical refinements, application to stars, the relic neutrinos in cosmology, and some unsolved problems and prospects. (JFP)

Quantifying fluctuations in economic systems by adapting methods of statistical physics

Science.gov (United States)

Stanley, H. E.; Gopikrishnan, P.; Plerou, V.; Amaral, L. A. N.

2000-12-01

The emerging subfield of econophysics explores the degree to which certain concepts and methods from statistical physics can be appropriately modified and adapted to provide new insights into questions that have been the focus of interest in the economics community. Here we give a brief overview of two examples of research topics that are receiving recent attention. A first topic is the characterization of the dynamics of stock price fluctuations. For example, we investigate the relation between trading activity - measured by the number of transactions NΔ t - and the price change GΔ t for a given stock, over a time interval [t, t+ Δt] . We relate the time-dependent standard deviation of price fluctuations - volatility - to two microscopic quantities: the number of transactions NΔ t in Δ t and the variance WΔ t2 of the price changes for all transactions in Δ t. Our work indicates that while the pronounced tails in the distribution of price fluctuations arise from WΔ t, the long-range correlations found in ∣ GΔ t∣ are largely due to NΔ t. We also investigate the relation between price fluctuations and the number of shares QΔ t traded in Δ t. We find that the distribution of QΔ t is consistent with a stable Lévy distribution, suggesting a Lévy scaling relationship between QΔ t and NΔ t, which would provide one explanation for volume-volatility co-movement. A second topic concerns cross-correlations between the price fluctuations of different stocks. We adapt a conceptual framework, random matrix theory (RMT), first used in physics to interpret statistical properties of nuclear energy spectra. RMT makes predictions for the statistical properties of matrices that are universal, that is, do not depend on the interactions between the elements comprising the system. In physics systems, deviations from the predictions of RMT provide clues regarding the mechanisms controlling the dynamics of a given system, so this framework can be of potential value if

Evaluating measurement uncertainty in fluid phase equilibrium calculations

Science.gov (United States)

van der Veen, Adriaan M. H.

2018-04-01

The evaluation of measurement uncertainty in accordance with the ‘Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement’ (GUM) has not yet become widespread in physical chemistry. With only the law of the propagation of uncertainty from the GUM, many of these uncertainty evaluations would be cumbersome, as models are often non-linear and require iterative calculations. The methods from GUM supplements 1 and 2 enable the propagation of uncertainties under most circumstances. Experimental data in physical chemistry are used, for example, to derive reference property data and support trade—all applications where measurement uncertainty plays an important role. This paper aims to outline how the methods for evaluating and propagating uncertainty can be applied to some specific cases with a wide impact: deriving reference data from vapour pressure data, a flash calculation, and the use of an equation-of-state to predict the properties of both phases in a vapour-liquid equilibrium. The three uncertainty evaluations demonstrate that the methods of GUM and its supplements are a versatile toolbox that enable us to evaluate the measurement uncertainty of physical chemical measurements, including the derivation of reference data, such as the equilibrium thermodynamical properties of fluids.

Statistical Mechanics of Money, Income, and Wealth

Science.gov (United States)

Yakovenko, Victor

2006-03-01

In Ref. [1], we proposed an analogy between the exponential Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution of energy in physics and the equilibrium probability distribution of money in a closed economic system. Analogously to energy, money is locally conserved in interactions between economic agents, so the thermal Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution function is expected for money. Since then, many researchers followed and expanded this idea [2]. Much work was done on the analysis of empirical data, mostly on income, for which a lot of tax and census data is available. We demonstrated [3] that income distribution in the USA has a well-defined two-class structure. The majority of population (97-99%) belongs to the lower class characterized by the exponential Boltzmann-Gibbs (``thermal'') distribution. The upper class (1-3% of population) has a Pareto power-law (``superthermal'') distribution, whose parameters change in time with the rise and fall of stock market. We proposed a concept of equilibrium inequality in a society, based on the principle of maximal entropy, and quantitatively demonstrated that it applies to the majority of population. Income distribution in other countries shows similar patterns. For more references, see http://www2.physics.umd.edu/˜yakovenk/econophysics.html. References: [1] A. A. Dragulescu and V. M. Yakovenko, ``Statistical mechanics of money'', Eur. Phys. J. B 17, 723 (2000). [2] ``Econophysics of Wealth Distributions'', edited by A. Chatterjee, S. Yarlagadda, and B. K. Chakrabarti, Springer, 2005. [3] A. C. Silva and V. M. Yakovenko, ``Temporal evolution of the `thermal' and `superthermal' income classes in the USA during 1983-2001'', Europhys. Lett. 69, 304 (2005).

Dynamical Symmetries and Causality in Non-Equilibrium Phase Transitions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malte Henkel

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Dynamical symmetries are of considerable importance in elucidating the complex behaviour of strongly interacting systems with many degrees of freedom. Paradigmatic examples are cooperative phenomena as they arise in phase transitions, where conformal invariance has led to enormous progress in equilibrium phase transitions, especially in two dimensions. Non-equilibrium phase transitions can arise in much larger portions of the parameter space than equilibrium phase transitions. The state of the art of recent attempts to generalise conformal invariance to a new generic symmetry, taking into account the different scaling behaviour of space and time, will be reviewed. Particular attention will be given to the causality properties as they follow for co-variant n-point functions. These are important for the physical identification of n-point functions as responses or correlators.

Ward identity for non-equilibrium Fermi systems

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Velický, B.; Kalvová, Anděla; Špička, Václav

2008-01-01

Roč. 77, č. 4 (2008), 041201/1-041201/4 ISSN 1098-0121 R&D Projects: GA ČR GC202/07/J051 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10100520; CEZ:AV0Z10100521 Keywords : non-equilibrium * Green’s functions * quantum transport equations * Ward identity Subject RIV: BE - Theoretical Physics Impact factor: 3.322, year: 2008

Equilibrium and pre-equilibrium emissions in proton-induced ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

necessary for the domain of fission-reactor technology for the calculation of nuclear transmutation ... tions occur in three stages: INC, pre-equilibrium and equilibrium (or compound. 344. Pramana ... In the evaporation phase of the reaction, the.

Determination of equilibrium composition of thermally ionized monoatomic gas under different physical conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Romanova, M. S.; Rydalevskaya, M. A.

2017-05-01

Perfect gas mixtures that result from thermal ionization of spatially and chemically homogeneous monoatomic gases are considered. Equilibrium concentrations of the components of such mixtures are determined using integration over the momentum space and summation with respect to energy levels of the distribution functions that maximize the entropy of system under condition for constancy of the total number of nuclei and electrons. It is demonstrated that such a method allows significant simplification of the calculation of the equilibrium composition for ionized mixtures at different temperatures and makes it possible to study the degree of ionization of gas versus gas density and number in the periodic table of elements.

Modeling of two-phase flow with thermal and mechanical non-equilibrium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Houdayer, G.; Pinet, B.; Le Coq, G.; Reocreux, M.; Rousseau, J.C.

1977-01-01

To improve two-phase flow modeling by taking into account thermal and mechanical non-equilibrium a joint effort on analytical experiment and physical modeling has been undertaken. A model describing thermal non-equilibrium effects is first presented. A correlation of mass transfer has been developed using steam water critical flow tests. This model has been used to predict in a satisfactory manner blowdown tests. It has been incorporated in CLYSTERE system code. To take into account mechanical non-equilibrium, a six equations model is written. To get information on the momentum transfers special nitrogen-water tests have been undertaken. The first results of these studies are presented

Shape characteristics of equilibrium and non-equilibrium fractal clusters.

Science.gov (United States)

Mansfield, Marc L; Douglas, Jack F

2013-07-28

It is often difficult in practice to discriminate between equilibrium and non-equilibrium nanoparticle or colloidal-particle clusters that form through aggregation in gas or solution phases. Scattering studies often permit the determination of an apparent fractal dimension, but both equilibrium and non-equilibrium clusters in three dimensions frequently have fractal dimensions near 2, so that it is often not possible to discriminate on the basis of this geometrical property. A survey of the anisotropy of a wide variety of polymeric structures (linear and ring random and self-avoiding random walks, percolation clusters, lattice animals, diffusion-limited aggregates, and Eden clusters) based on the principal components of both the radius of gyration and electric polarizability tensor indicates, perhaps counter-intuitively, that self-similar equilibrium clusters tend to be intrinsically anisotropic at all sizes, while non-equilibrium processes such as diffusion-limited aggregation or Eden growth tend to be isotropic in the large-mass limit, providing a potential means of discriminating these clusters experimentally if anisotropy could be determined along with the fractal dimension. Equilibrium polymer structures, such as flexible polymer chains, are normally self-similar due to the existence of only a single relevant length scale, and are thus anisotropic at all length scales, while non-equilibrium polymer structures that grow irreversibly in time eventually become isotropic if there is no difference in the average growth rates in different directions. There is apparently no proof of these general trends and little theoretical insight into what controls the universal anisotropy in equilibrium polymer structures of various kinds. This is an obvious topic of theoretical investigation, as well as a matter of practical interest. To address this general problem, we consider two experimentally accessible ratios, one between the hydrodynamic and gyration radii, the other

New exponential, logarithm and q-probability in the non-extensive statistical physics

OpenAIRE

Chung, Won Sang

2013-01-01

In this paper, a new exponential and logarithm related to the non-extensive statistical physics is proposed by using the q-sum and q-product which satisfy the distributivity. And we discuss the q-mapping from an ordinary probability to q-probability. The q-entropy defined by the idea of q-probability is shown to be q-additive.

Information-theoretic equilibrium and observable thermalization

OpenAIRE

Anza, Fabio; Vedral, Vlatko

2015-01-01

To understand under which conditions thermodynamics emerges from the microscopic dynamics is the ultimate goal of statistical mechanics. Despite the fact that the theory is more than 100 years old, we are still discussing its foundations and its regime of applicability. A point of crucial importance is the definition of the notion of thermal equilibrium, which is given as the state that maximises the von Neumann entropy. Here we argue that it is necessary to propose a new way of describing th...

Non-Extensive Statistical Analysis of Magnetic Field and SEPs during the March 2012 ICME event, using a multi-spacecraft approach

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlos, George; Malandraki, Olga; Pavlos, Evgenios; Iliopoulos, Aggelos; Karakatsanis, Leonidas

2017-04-01

-entropy principle can explain the emergence of a series of new and significant physical characteristics in distributed systems as well as in space plasmas. Such characteristics are: non-Gaussian statistics and anomalous diffusion processes, strange and fractional dynamics, multifractal, percolating and intermittent turbulence structures, multiscale and long spatio-temporal correlations, fractional acceleration and Non-Equilibrium Stationary States (NESS) or non-equilibrium self-organization process and non-equilibrium phase transition and topological phase transition processes according to Zelenyi and Milovanov (2004). In this direction, our results reveal clearly strong self-organization and development of macroscopic ordering of plasma system related to strengthen of non-extensivity, multifractality and intermittency everywhere in the space plasmas region during the CME event. Acknowledgements: This project has received funding form the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 637324.

Graphene growth process modeling: a physical-statistical approach

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Jian; Huang, Qiang

2014-09-01

As a zero-band semiconductor, graphene is an attractive material for a wide variety of applications such as optoelectronics. Among various techniques developed for graphene synthesis, chemical vapor deposition on copper foils shows high potential for producing few-layer and large-area graphene. Since fabrication of high-quality graphene sheets requires the understanding of growth mechanisms, and methods of characterization and control of grain size of graphene flakes, analytical modeling of graphene growth process is therefore essential for controlled fabrication. The graphene growth process starts with randomly nucleated islands that gradually develop into complex shapes, grow in size, and eventually connect together to cover the copper foil. To model this complex process, we develop a physical-statistical approach under the assumption of self-similarity during graphene growth. The growth kinetics is uncovered by separating island shapes from area growth rate. We propose to characterize the area growth velocity using a confined exponential model, which not only has clear physical explanation, but also fits the real data well. For the shape modeling, we develop a parametric shape model which can be well explained by the angular-dependent growth rate. This work can provide useful information for the control and optimization of graphene growth process on Cu foil.

Molecular-dynamics study of propane-hydrate dissociation: Fluctuation-dissipation and non-equilibrium analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghaani, Mohammad Reza; English, Niall J

2018-03-21

Equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed to investigate thermal-driven break-up of planar propane-hydrate interfaces in contact with liquid water over the 260-320 K range. Two types of hydrate-surface water-lattice molecular termination were adopted, at the hydrate edge with water, for comparison: a 001-direct surface cleavage and one with completed cages. Statistically significant differences in melting temperatures and initial break-up rates were observed between both interface types. Dissociation rates were observed to be strongly dependent on temperature, with higher rates at larger over-temperatures vis-à-vis melting. A simple coupled mass and heat transfer model, developed previously, was applied to fit the observed dissociation profiles, and this helps us to identify clearly two distinct hydrate-decomposition régimes; following a highly temperature-dependent break-up phase, a second well-defined stage is essentially independent of temperature, in which the remaining nanoscale, de facto two-dimensional system's lattice framework is intrinsically unstable. Further equilibrium MD-analysis of the two-phase systems at their melting point, with consideration of the relaxation times gleaned from the auto-correlation functions of fluctuations in a number of enclathrated guest molecules, led to statistically significant differences between the two surface-termination cases; a consistent correlation emerged in both cases between the underlying, non-equilibrium, thermal-driven dissociation rates sampled directly from melting with that from an equilibrium-MD fluctuation-dissipation approach.

Statistical classification techniques in high energy physics (SDDT algorithm)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bouř, Petr; Kůs, Václav; Franc, Jiří

2016-01-01

We present our proposal of the supervised binary divergence decision tree with nested separation method based on the generalized linear models. A key insight we provide is the clustering driven only by a few selected physical variables. The proper selection consists of the variables achieving the maximal divergence measure between two different classes. Further, we apply our method to Monte Carlo simulations of physics processes corresponding to a data sample of top quark-antiquark pair candidate events in the lepton+jets decay channel. The data sample is produced in pp̅ collisions at √S = 1.96 TeV. It corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 9.7 fb"-"1 recorded with the D0 detector during Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The efficiency of our algorithm achieves 90% AUC in separating signal from background. We also briefly deal with the modification of statistical tests applicable to weighted data sets in order to test homogeneity of the Monte Carlo simulations and measured data. The justification of these modified tests is proposed through the divergence tests. (paper)

A reductionist perspective on quantum statistical mechanics: Coarse-graining of path integrals.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinitskiy, Anton V; Voth, Gregory A

2015-09-07

Computational modeling of the condensed phase based on classical statistical mechanics has been rapidly developing over the last few decades and has yielded important information on various systems containing up to millions of atoms. However, if a system of interest contains important quantum effects, well-developed classical techniques cannot be used. One way of treating finite temperature quantum systems at equilibrium has been based on Feynman's imaginary time path integral approach and the ensuing quantum-classical isomorphism. This isomorphism is exact only in the limit of infinitely many classical quasiparticles representing each physical quantum particle. In this work, we present a reductionist perspective on this problem based on the emerging methodology of coarse-graining. This perspective allows for the representations of one quantum particle with only two classical-like quasiparticles and their conjugate momenta. One of these coupled quasiparticles is the centroid particle of the quantum path integral quasiparticle distribution. Only this quasiparticle feels the potential energy function. The other quasiparticle directly provides the observable averages of quantum mechanical operators. The theory offers a simplified perspective on quantum statistical mechanics, revealing its most reductionist connection to classical statistical physics. By doing so, it can facilitate a simpler representation of certain quantum effects in complex molecular environments.

A reductionist perspective on quantum statistical mechanics: Coarse-graining of path integrals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sinitskiy, Anton V.; Voth, Gregory A.

2015-01-01

Computational modeling of the condensed phase based on classical statistical mechanics has been rapidly developing over the last few decades and has yielded important information on various systems containing up to millions of atoms. However, if a system of interest contains important quantum effects, well-developed classical techniques cannot be used. One way of treating finite temperature quantum systems at equilibrium has been based on Feynman’s imaginary time path integral approach and the ensuing quantum-classical isomorphism. This isomorphism is exact only in the limit of infinitely many classical quasiparticles representing each physical quantum particle. In this work, we present a reductionist perspective on this problem based on the emerging methodology of coarse-graining. This perspective allows for the representations of one quantum particle with only two classical-like quasiparticles and their conjugate momenta. One of these coupled quasiparticles is the centroid particle of the quantum path integral quasiparticle distribution. Only this quasiparticle feels the potential energy function. The other quasiparticle directly provides the observable averages of quantum mechanical operators. The theory offers a simplified perspective on quantum statistical mechanics, revealing its most reductionist connection to classical statistical physics. By doing so, it can facilitate a simpler representation of certain quantum effects in complex molecular environments

Statistical black-hole thermodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bekenstein, J.D.

1975-01-01

Traditional methods from statistical thermodynamics, with appropriate modifications, are used to study several problems in black-hole thermodynamics. Jaynes's maximum-uncertainty method for computing probabilities is used to show that the earlier-formulated generalized second law is respected in statistically averaged form in the process of spontaneous radiation by a Kerr black hole discovered by Hawking, and also in the case of a Schwarzschild hole immersed in a bath of black-body radiation, however cold. The generalized second law is used to motivate a maximum-entropy principle for determining the equilibrium probability distribution for a system containing a black hole. As an application we derive the distribution for the radiation in equilibrium with a Kerr hole (it is found to agree with what would be expected from Hawking's results) and the form of the associated distribution among Kerr black-hole solution states of definite mass. The same results are shown to follow from a statistical interpretation of the concept of black-hole entropy as the natural logarithm of the number of possible interior configurations that are compatible with the given exterior black-hole state. We also formulate a Jaynes-type maximum-uncertainty principle for black holes, and apply it to obtain the probability distribution among Kerr solution states for an isolated radiating Kerr hole

Reflections on Gibbs: From Statistical Physics to the Amistad V3.0

Science.gov (United States)

Kadanoff, Leo P.

2014-07-01

This note is based upon a talk given at an APS meeting in celebration of the achievements of J. Willard Gibbs. J. Willard Gibbs, the younger, was the first American physical sciences theorist. He was one of the inventors of statistical physics. He introduced and developed the concepts of phase space, phase transitions, and thermodynamic surfaces in a remarkably correct and elegant manner. These three concepts form the basis of different areas of physics. The connection among these areas has been a subject of deep reflection from Gibbs' time to our own. This talk therefore celebrated Gibbs by describing modern ideas about how different parts of physics fit together. I finished with a more personal note. Our own J. Willard Gibbs had all his many achievements concentrated in science. His father, also J. Willard Gibbs, also a Professor at Yale, had one great non-academic achievement that remains unmatched in our day. I describe it.

Noise stabilization effects in models of interdisciplinary physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spagnolo, B; Augello, G; Caldara, P; Fiasconaro, A; La Cognata, A; Pizzolato, N; Valenti, D; Dubkov, A A; Pankratov, A L

2009-01-01

Metastability is a generic feature of many nonlinear systems, and the problem of the lifetime of metastable states involves fundamental aspects of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The investigation of noise-induced phenomena in far from equilibrium systems is one of the approaches used to understand the behaviour of physical and biological complex systems. The enhancement of the lifetime of metastable states through the noise enhanced stability effect and the role played by the resonant activation phenomenon will be discussed in models of interdisciplinary physics: (i) polymer translocation dynamics; (ii) transient regime of FitzHugh-Nagumo model; (iii) market stability in a nonlinear Heston model; (iv) dynamics of Josephson junctions; (v) metastability in a quantum bitable system.

Thermalized solutions, statistical mechanics and turbulence

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

2015-02-20

Feb 20, 2015 ... In this study, we examine the intriguing connection between turbulence and equilibrium statistical mechanics. There are several recent works which emphasize this connection. Thus in the last ... Current Issue : Vol. 90, Issue 6.

NON-EQUILIBRIUM HELIUM IONIZATION IN AN MHD SIMULATION OF THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golding, Thomas Peter; Carlsson, Mats; Leenaarts, Jorrit

2016-01-01

The ionization state of the gas in the dynamic solar chromosphere can depart strongly from the instantaneous statistical equilibrium commonly assumed in numerical modeling. We improve on earlier simulations of the solar atmosphere that only included non-equilibrium hydrogen ionization by performing a 2D radiation-magnetohydrodynamics simulation featuring non-equilibrium ionization of both hydrogen and helium. The simulation includes the effect of hydrogen Lyα and the EUV radiation from the corona on the ionization and heating of the atmosphere. Details on code implementation are given. We obtain helium ion fractions that are far from their equilibrium values. Comparison with models with local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) ionization shows that non-equilibrium helium ionization leads to higher temperatures in wavefronts and lower temperatures in the gas between shocks. Assuming LTE ionization results in a thermostat-like behavior with matter accumulating around the temperatures where the LTE ionization fractions change rapidly. Comparison of DEM curves computed from our models shows that non-equilibrium ionization leads to more radiating material in the temperature range 11–18 kK, compared to models with LTE helium ionization. We conclude that non-equilibrium helium ionization is important for the dynamics and thermal structure of the upper chromosphere and transition region. It might also help resolve the problem that intensities of chromospheric lines computed from current models are smaller than those observed

The quasi-equilibrium response of MOS structures: Quasi-static factor

Science.gov (United States)

Okeke, M.; Balland, B.

1984-07-01

The dynamic response of a MOS structure driven into a non-equilibrium behaviour by a voltage ramp is presented. In contrast to Khun's quasi-static technique it is shown that any ramp-driven MOS structure has some degree of non-equilibrium. A quasi staticity factor μAK which serves as a measure of the degree of quasi-equilibrium, has been introduced for the first time. The mathematical model presented in the paper allows a better explanation of the experimental recordings. It is shown that this model could be used to analyse the various features of the response of the structure and that such physical parameters as the generation-rate, trap activation energy, and the effective capture constants could be obtained.

Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) impact : physical and statistical impossibility.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boslough, Mark Bruce Elrick

2010-08-01

The YDB impact hypothesis of Firestone et al. (2007) is so extremely improbable it can be considered statistically impossible in addition to being physically impossible. Comets make up only about 1% of the population of Earth-crossing objects. Broken comets are a vanishingly small fraction, and only exist as Earth-sized clusters for a very short period of time. Only a small fraction of impacts occur at angles as shallow as proposed by the YDB impact authors. Events that are exceptionally unlikely to take place in the age of the Universe are 'statistically impossible'. The size distribution of Earth-crossing asteroids is well-constrained by astronomical observations, DoD satellite bolide frequencies, and the cratering record. This distribution can be transformed to a probability density function (PDF) for the largest expected impact of the past 20,000 years. The largest impact of any kind expected over the period of interest is 250 m. Anything larger than 2 km is exceptionally unlikely (probability less than 1%). The impact hypothesis does not rely on any sound physical model. A 4-km diameter comet, even if it fragmented upon entry, would not disperse or explode in the atmosphere. It would generate a crater about 50 km in diameter with a transient cavity as deep as 10 km. There is no evidence for such a large, young crater associated with the YDB. There is no model to suggest that a comet impact of this size is capable of generating continental-wide fires or blast damage, and there is no physical mechanism that could cause a 4-km comet to explode at the optimum height of 500 km. The highest possible altitude for a cometary optimum height is about 15 km, for a 120-m diameter comet. To maximize blast and thermal damage, a 4-km comet would have to break into tens of thousands fragments of this size and spread out over the entire continent, but that would require lateral forces that greatly exceed the drag force, and would not conserve energy. Airbursts are

Profiles of equilibrium constants for self-association of aromatic molecules.

Science.gov (United States)

Beshnova, Daria A; Lantushenko, Anastasia O; Davies, David B; Evstigneev, Maxim P

2009-04-28

Analysis of the noncovalent, noncooperative self-association of identical aromatic molecules assumes that the equilibrium self-association constants are either independent of the number of molecules (the EK-model) or change progressively with increasing aggregation (the AK-model). The dependence of the self-association constant on the number of molecules in the aggregate (i.e., the profile of the equilibrium constant) was empirically derived in the AK-model but, in order to provide some physical understanding of the profile, it is proposed that the sources for attenuation of the equilibrium constant are the loss of translational and rotational degrees of freedom, the ordering of molecules in the aggregates and the electrostatic contribution (for charged units). Expressions are derived for the profiles of the equilibrium constants for both neutral and charged molecules. Although the EK-model has been widely used in the analysis of experimental data, it is shown in this work that the derived equilibrium constant, K(EK), depends on the concentration range used and hence, on the experimental method employed. The relationship has also been demonstrated between the equilibrium constant K(EK) and the real dimerization constant, K(D), which shows that the value of K(EK) is always lower than K(D).

Statistical properties of three-dimensional two-fluid plasma model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Qaisrani, M. Hasnain [State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, WuHan, Hubei 430074 (China); Xia, ZhenWei [Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China); Zou, Dandan, E-mail: ddzou@hust.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, WuHan, Hubei 430074 (China); School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023 (China)

2015-09-15

The nonlinear dynamics of incompressible non-dissipative two-fluid plasma model is investigated through classical Gibbs ensemble methods. Liouville's theorem of phase space for each wave number is proved, and the absolute equilibrium spectra for Galerkin truncated two-fluid model are calculated. In two-fluid theory, the equilibrium is built on the conservation of three quadratic invariants: the total energy and the self-helicities for ions and electrons fluid, respectively. The implications of statistic equilibrium spectra with arbitrary ratios of conserved invariants are discussed.

Principle of maximum Fisher information from Hardy's axioms applied to statistical systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Frieden, B Roy; Gatenby, Robert A

2013-10-01

Consider a finite-sized, multidimensional system in parameter state a. The system is either at statistical equilibrium or general nonequilibrium, and may obey either classical or quantum physics. L. Hardy's mathematical axioms provide a basis for the physics obeyed by any such system. One axiom is that the number N of distinguishable states a in the system obeys N=max. This assumes that N is known as deterministic prior knowledge. However, most observed systems suffer statistical fluctuations, for which N is therefore only known approximately. Then what happens if the scope of the axiom N=max is extended to include such observed systems? It is found that the state a of the system must obey a principle of maximum Fisher information, I=I(max). This is important because many physical laws have been derived, assuming as a working hypothesis that I=I(max). These derivations include uses of the principle of extreme physical information (EPI). Examples of such derivations were of the De Broglie wave hypothesis, quantum wave equations, Maxwell's equations, new laws of biology (e.g., of Coulomb force-directed cell development and of in situ cancer growth), and new laws of economic fluctuation and investment. That the principle I=I(max) itself derives from suitably extended Hardy axioms thereby eliminates its need to be assumed in these derivations. Thus, uses of I=I(max) and EPI express physics at its most fundamental level, its axiomatic basis in math.

Data analysis and graphing in an introductory physics laboratory: spreadsheet versus statistics suite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peterlin, Primoz

2010-01-01

Two methods of data analysis are compared: spreadsheet software and a statistics software suite. Their use is compared analysing data collected in three selected experiments taken from an introductory physics laboratory, which include a linear dependence, a nonlinear dependence and a histogram. The merits of each method are compared.

Toward a Parastatistics in Quantum Nonextensive Statistical Mechanics

Science.gov (United States)

Zaripov, R. G.

2018-05-01

On the basis of Bose quantum states in parastatistics the equations for the equilibrium distribution of quantum additive and nonextensive systems are determined. The fluctuations and variances of physical quantities for the equilibrium system are found. The Abelian group of microscopic entropies is determined for the composition law with a quadratic nonlinearity.

Perspectives and challenges in statistical physics and complex systems for the next decade

CERN Document Server

Raposo, Ernesto P; Gomes Eleutério da Luz, Marcos

2014-01-01

Statistical Physics (SP) has followed an unusual evolutionary path in science. Originally aiming to provide a fundamental basis for another important branch of Physics, namely Thermodynamics, SP gradually became an independent field of research in its own right. But despite more than a century of steady progress, there are still plenty of challenges and open questions in the SP realm. In fact, the area is still rapidly evolving, in contrast to other branches of science, which already have well defined scopes and borderlines of applicability. This difference is due to the steadily expanding num

Numerical simulation of hypersonic inlet flows with equilibrium or finite rate chemistry

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Sheng-Tao; Hsieh, Kwang-Chung; Shuen, Jian-Shun; Mcbride, Bonnie J.

1988-01-01

An efficient numerical program incorporated with comprehensive high temperature gas property models has been developed to simulate hypersonic inlet flows. The computer program employs an implicit lower-upper time marching scheme to solve the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with variable thermodynamic and transport properties. Both finite-rate and local-equilibrium approaches are adopted in the chemical reaction model for dissociation and ionization of the inlet air. In the finite rate approach, eleven species equations coupled with fluid dynamic equations are solved simultaneously. In the local-equilibrium approach, instead of solving species equations, an efficient chemical equilibrium package has been developed and incorporated into the flow code to obtain chemical compositions directly. Gas properties for the reaction products species are calculated by methods of statistical mechanics and fit to a polynomial form for C(p). In the present study, since the chemical reaction time is comparable to the flow residence time, the local-equilibrium model underpredicts the temperature in the shock layer. Significant differences of predicted chemical compositions in shock layer between finite rate and local-equilibrium approaches have been observed.

Estimating Dynamic Equilibrium Models using Macro and Financial Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Bent Jesper; Posch, Olaf; van der Wel, Michel

We show that including financial market data at daily frequency, along with macro series at standard lower frequency, facilitates statistical inference on structural parameters in dynamic equilibrium models. Our continuous-time formulation conveniently accounts for the difference in observation...... of the estimators and estimate the model using 20 years of U.S. macro and financial data....

Examples of the Application of Nonparametric Information Geometry to Statistical Physics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Pistone

2013-09-01

Full Text Available We review a nonparametric version of Amari’s information geometry in which the set of positive probability densities on a given sample space is endowed with an atlas of charts to form a differentiable manifold modeled on Orlicz Banach spaces. This nonparametric setting is used to discuss the setting of typical problems in machine learning and statistical physics, such as black-box optimization, Kullback-Leibler divergence, Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy and the Boltzmann equation.

Statistical physics of media processes: Mediaphysics

Science.gov (United States)

Kuznetsov, Dmitri V.; Mandel, Igor

2007-04-01

The processes of mass communications in complicated social or sociobiological systems such as marketing, economics, politics, animal populations, etc. as a subject for the special scientific subbranch-“mediaphysics”-are considered in its relation with sociophysics. A new statistical physics approach to analyze these phenomena is proposed. A keystone of the approach is an analysis of population distribution between two or many alternatives: brands, political affiliations, or opinions. Relative distances between a state of a “person's mind” and the alternatives are measures of propensity to buy (to affiliate, or to have a certain opinion). The distribution of population by those relative distances is time dependent and affected by external (economic, social, marketing, natural) and internal (influential propagation of opinions, “word of mouth”, etc.) factors, considered as fields. Specifically, the interaction and opinion-influence field can be generalized to incorporate important elements of Ising-spin-based sociophysical models and kinetic-equation ones. The distributions were described by a Schrödinger-type equation in terms of Green's functions. The developed approach has been applied to a real mass-media efficiency problem for a large company and generally demonstrated very good results despite low initial correlations of factors and the target variable.

Physics-based preconditioning and the Newton-Krylov method for non-equilibrium radiation diffusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mousseau, V.A.; Knoll, D.A.; Rider, W.J.

2000-01-01

An algorithm is presented for the solution of the time dependent reaction-diffusion systems which arise in non-equilibrium radiation diffusion applications. This system of nonlinear equations is solved by coupling three numerical methods, Jacobian-free Newton-Krylov, operator splitting, and multigrid linear solvers. An inexact Newton's method is used to solve the system of nonlinear equations. Since building the Jacobian matrix for problems of interest can be challenging, the authors employ a Jacobian-free implementation of Newton's method, where the action of the Jacobian matrix on a vector is approximated by a first order Taylor series expansion. Preconditioned generalized minimal residual (PGMRES) is the Krylov method used to solve the linear systems that come from the iterations of Newton's method. The preconditioner in this solution method is constructed using a physics-based divide and conquer approach, often referred to as operator splitting. This solution procedure inverts the scalar elliptic systems that make up the preconditioner using simple multigrid methods. The preconditioner also addresses the strong coupling between equations with local 2 x 2 block solves. The intra-cell coupling is applied after the inter-cell coupling has already been addressed by the elliptic solves. Results are presented using this solution procedure that demonstrate its efficiency while incurring minimal memory requirements

Isospin equilibrium and non-equilibrium in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Liewen; Ge Lingxiao; Zhang Xiaodong; Zhang Fengshou

1997-01-01

The equilibrium and non-equilibrium of the isospin degree of freedom are studied in terms of an isospin-dependent QMD model, which includes isospin-dependent symmetry energy, Coulomb energy, N-N cross sections and Pauli blocking. It is shown that there exists a transition from the isospin equilibrium to non-equilibrium as the incident energy from below to above a threshold energy in central, asymmetric heavy-ion collisions. Meanwhile, it is found that the phenomenon results from the co-existence and competition of different reaction mechanisms, namely, the isospin degree of freedom reaches an equilibrium if the incomplete fusion (ICF) component is dominant and does not reach equilibrium if the fragmentation component is dominant. Moreover, it is also found that the isospin-dependent N-N cross sections and symmetry energy are crucial for the equilibrium of the isospin degree of freedom in heavy-ion collisions around the Fermi energy. (author)