Dynamical ensembles in stationary states
- Universita di Roma la Sapienza, Rome (Italy)
- Rockefeller Univ., New York, NY (United States)
We propose, as a generalization of an idea of Ruelle`s to describe turbulent fluid flow, a chaotic hypothesis for reversible dissipative many-particle systems in nonequilibrium stationary states in general. This implies an extension of the zeroth law of thermodynamics to nonequilibrium states and it leads to the identification of a unique distribution {mu} describing the asymptotic properties of the time evolution of the system for initial data randomly chosen with respect to a uniform distribution on phase space. For conservative systems in thermal equilibrium the chaotic hypothesis implies the ergodic hypothesis. We outline a procedure to obtain the distribution {mu}: it leads to a new unifying point of view for the phase space behavior of dissipative and conservative systems. The chaotic hypothesis is confirmed in a nontrivial, parameter-free, way by a recent computer experiment on the entropy production fluctuations in a shearing fluid far from equilibrium. Similar applications to other models are proposed, in particular to a model for the Kolmogorov-Obuchov theory for turbulent flow.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-88ER13847
- OSTI ID:
- 114961
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 80, Issue 5-6; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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