Local information‐distance thermodynamics of molecular fragments

The Fisher information contained in a probability distribution is summarized. The corresponding measures of the information distance, relative to the reference probability density, are introduced and discussed. These concepts are designed as analogues of the Kullback‐Leibler directed divergence and Kullback's divergence. For these alternative measures of the missing information the equilibrium (“stockholder”) scheme of Hirshfeld, of a division of the molecular electron density into the subsystem components, is derived from the minimum principle of the local or global entropy deficiency relative to the free‐subsystem (“promolecule”) reference. The local information distance densities are used to describe instantaneous electron distributions in molecular subsystems within a thermodynamic‐like approach to the density fluctuations and irreversible processes. The key concepts of such a local irreversible “thermodynamics” are introduced. They include the corresponding local affinities (forces) and the conjugate fluxes (responses), which together determine the local entropy deficiency source. These quantities depend on the adopted measure of the information distance and selected state‐parameters. For each such representation the relevant Onsager‐type reciprocity relations can be derived, which reflect the symmetries between the linear effects of affinities on fluxes.     

Sensitivity to initial conditions in the Bak-Sneppen model of biological evolution

We consider biological evolution as described within the Bak and Sneppen 1993 model. We exhibit, at the self-organized critical state, a power-law sensitivity to the initial conditions, calculate the associated exponent, and relate it to the recently introduced nonextensive thermostatistics. The scenario which here emerges without tuning strongly reminds of that of the tuned onset of chaos in say logistic-like one-dimensional maps. We also calculate the dynamical exponent z. Received: 5 November 1997 / Received in final form: 11 November 1997 / Accepted: 19 November 1997     

Use of Rydberg atoms to control electron temperatures in ultracold plasmas

We investigate the idea of adding Rydberg atoms to an ultracold plasma to control the electronic temperature of the plasma. We show that a certain amount of control is indeed possible, and discuss limitations for the extent of electron cooling. Experimental data are found to be in good agreement with numerical simulations.     

One-dimensional Ising-like systems: an analytical investigation of the static and dynamic properties, applied to spin-crossover relaxation

We investigate the dynamical properties of the 1-D Ising-like Hamiltonian taking into account short and long range interactions, in order to predict the static and dynamic behavior of spin crossover systems. The stochastic treatment is carried out within the frame of the local equilibrium method [1]. The calculations yield, at thermodynamic equilibrium, the exact analytic expression previously obtained by the transfer matrix technique [2]. We mainly discuss the shape of the relaxation curves: (i) for large (positive) values of the short range interaction parameter, a saturation of the relaxation curves is observed, reminiscent of the behavior of the width of the static hysteresis loop [3]; (ii) a sigmoidal (self-accelerated) behavior is obtained for large enough interactions of any type; (iii) the relaxation curves exhibit a sizeable tail (with respect to the mean-field curves) which is clearly associated with the transient onset of first-neighbor correlations in the system, due to the effect of short-range interactions. The case of negative short-range interaction is briefly discussed in terms of two-step properties. Received 29 October 1999 and Received in final form 30 December 1999     

Geometric study for the Legendre duality of generalized entropies and its application to the porous medium equation

We geometrically study the Legendre duality relation that plays an important role in statistical physics with the standard or generalized entropies. For this purpose, we introduce dualistic structure defined by information geometry, and discuss concepts arising in generalized thermostatistics, such as relative entropies, escort distributions and modified expectations. Further, a possible generalization of these concepts in a certain direction is also considered. Finally, as an application of such a geometric viewpoint, we briefly demonstrate several new results on the behavior of the solution to a nonlinear diffusion equation called the porous medium equation.     

Statistical mechanics of money

In a closed economic system, money is conserved. Thus, by analogy with energy, the equilibrium probability distribution of money must follow the exponential Boltzmann-Gibbs law characterized by an effective temperature equal to the average amount of money per economic agent. We demonstrate how the Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution emerges in computer simulations of economic models. Then we consider a thermal machine, in which the difference of temperatures allows one to extract a monetary profit. We also discuss the role of debt, and models with broken time-reversal symmetry for which the Boltzmann-Gibbs law does not hold. The instantaneous distribution of money among the agents of a system should not be confused with the distribution of wealth. The latter also includes material wealth, which is not conserved, and thus may have a different (e.g. power-law) distribution. Received 22 June 2000     

Genetic Algorithms as a tool in the study of aperiodic order,with application to the case of X-Ray diffraction spectra of GaAs-AlAs multilayer heterostructures

We present the first application of Genetic Algorithms to the analysis of data from an aperiodically ordered system, high resolution X-Ray diffraction spectra from multilayer heterostructures arranged according to a deterministic or random scheme. This method paves the way to the solution of the “inverse problem”, that is the retrieval of the generating disorder from the investigation of the spectra of an unknown sample having non crystallographic, non quasi-crystallographic order. Received 18 March 2002 / Received in final form 3 July 2002 Published online 31 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: Evelyne.Lutton@inria.fr RID="b" ID="b"CNRS UMR 8502     

黑体辐射公式的多种推导及其在近代物理构建中的意义(Ⅰ)

黑体辐射是近代物理史上一只会下金蛋的鹅,是近代物理的摇篮。黑体辐射研究的意义还在于这是唯一一个涉及c,k,h三个普适常数的物理情景。黑体辐射谱抗测量误差的特性带来了辐射标准和绝对温度参照,谱分布公式对模型的不敏感则使得黑体辐射成为独特的物理研究母题。黑体辐射谱分布公式,普朗克多角度推导过,德拜推导过,艾伦菲斯特推导过,劳厄推导过,洛伦兹和庞加莱深入讨论过,泡利推导过,玻色推导过,爱因斯坦在20多年的时间里多角度推导过且产出最为丰硕,近代还有从相对论角度的推导,每一个角度的推导都带来了物理学的新内容,这包括量子力学、固体量子论、受激辐射、量子统计、相对论统计,等等。认真回顾黑体辐射研究的历史细节,考察其中的思想概念演化,不啻于体验一次教科书式的学(做)物理之旅,比如也可以尝试给出能量局域分立化的简单新证明。