IngentaConnect Gibbs entropy and irreversible thermodynamics

Authors: Rondoni L.¹; Cohen E.G.D.²

Source: Nonlinearity, Volume 13, Number 6, 2000 , pp. 1905-1924(20)

Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing

Abstract:

Recently, a number of approaches have been developed to connect the microscopic dynamics of particle systems to the macroscopic properties of systems in non-equilibrium stationary states, via the theory of dynamical systems. In this way a direct connection between dynamics and irreversible thermodynamics has been claimed to have been found. However, the main quantity used in these studies is a (coarse-grained) Gibbs entropy, which to us does not seem suitable, in its present form, to characterize non-equilibrium states. Various simplified models have also been devised to give explicit examples of how the coarse-grained approach may succeed in giving a full description of the irreversible thermodynamics. We analyse some of these models and point out a number of difficulties which, in our opinion, need to be overcome in order to establish a physically relevant connection between these models and irreversible thermodynamics.

Language: English

Document Type: Miscellaneous

Affiliations: 1: Dipartimento di Matematica, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, I-10129 Torino, Italy 2: Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10021, USA

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