Entropy and the Time Evolution of Macroscopic Systems

Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-19-954617-6
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, Band 141, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 505 g

Reihe: International Series of Monographs on Physics

This book is based on the premise that the entropy concept, a fundamental element of probability theory as logic, governs all of thermal physics, both equilibrium and nonequilibrium. The variational algorithm of J. Willard Gibbs, dating from the 19th Century and extended considerably over the following 100 years, is shown to be the governing feature over the entire range of thermal phenomena, such that only the nature of the macroscopic constraints changes. Beginning
with a short history of the development of the entropy concept by Rudolph Clausius and his predecessors, along with the formalization of classical thermodynamics by Gibbs, the first part of the book describes the quest to uncover the meaning of thermodynamic entropy, which leads to its relationship
with probability and information as first envisioned by Ludwig Boltzmann. Recognition of entropy first of all as a fundamental element of probability theory in mid-twentieth Century led to deep insights into both statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, the details of which are presented here in several chapters. The later chapters extend these ideas to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics in an unambiguous manner, thereby exhibiting the overall unifying role of the entropy.

Zielgruppe

Graduate students and researchers in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and chemical engineering.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Grandy, Walter T. Jr.

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Maschinenbau | Werkstoffkunde Technische Mechanik | Werkstoffkunde Technische Thermodynamik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Thermodynamik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Angewandte Physik Statistische Physik, Dynamische Systeme

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1: Introduction
2: Some Clarification from Another Direction
3: The Probability Connection
4: Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
5: The Presumed Extensivity of Entropy
6: Nonequilibrium States
7: Steady-State Processes
8: Sources and Time-Dependent Proceses
9: Thermal Driving
10: Application to Fluid Dynamics
11: Irreversibility, Relaxation, and the Approach to Equilibrium
12: Entropy Production and Dissipation Rates
A: Perturbation Theory
B: Dissipative Currents and Galilean Invariance
C: Analytic Continuation of Covariance Functions

Über Autor(innen)

Walter T. Grandy, Jr.
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
University of Wyoming

Professor of Physics, University of Wyoming, 1963-1998.
Visiting Professor: University of Sao Paulo, Brazil; University of Tübingen, Germany; University of Sydney, Australia.