Equilibrium regained: from nonequilibrium chaos to statistical mechanics.
Far-from-equilibrium, spatially extended chaotic systems have generally eluded analytical solution, leading researchers to consider theories based on a statistical rather than a detailed knowledge of the microscopic length scales. Building on the recent discovery of a separation of length scales between macroscopic behavior and microscopic chaos, a simple far-from-equilibrium spatially extended chaotic system has been studied computationally at intermediate, coarse-grained scales. Equilibrium properties such as Gibbs distributions and detailed balance are recovered at these scales, which suggests that the macroscopic behavior of some far-from-equilibrium systems might be understood in terms of equilibrium statistical mechanics.
Egolf
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Center for Nonlinear Studies (MS B258), Theoretical Division and Condensed Matter and Thermal Physics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA. egolf@cnls.lanl.gov
D008433:Mathematics; D019563:Mechanics; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013816:Thermodynamics