On the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the Piston Problem

The piston problem is investigated in the case where the length of the cylinder is infinite (on both sides) and the ratio m/M is a very small parameter, where m is the mass of one particle of the gaz and M is the mass of the piston. Introducing initial conditions such that the stochastic motion of the piston remains in the average at the origin (no drift), it is shown that the time evolution of the fluids, analytically derived from Liouville equation in a previous work, agrees with the Second Law of thermodynamics. We thus have a non equilibrium microscopical model whose evolution can be explicitly shown to obey the two laws of thermodynamics.     

Zeroth-order phase transitions and Zipf law quantization

From the standpoint of thermodynamic averaging of fission microprocesses, we investigate the origin of radioactive release in an NPP after an accident or after resource depletion. The genesis of the NPP release is interpreted as a new thermodynamic phenomenon, a zeroth-order phase transition. This problem setting results in a problem in probabilistic number theory. We prove the corresponding theorem leading to quantization of the Zipf law for the frequency of a zeroth-order phase transition with different values of the jump of the Gibbs thermodynamic potential. We introduce the notion of hole dimension. __________ Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 150, No. 1, pp. 118–142, January, 2007.     

热动力学问题的数值计算

 对含热传导的流体动力学方程组，用有限元方法进行数值求解。采用傅里叶热传导计算热流、用热流连续条件计算单元间接触面的温度、用三角形传热法计算体单元表面的热流，考虑各向同性弹塑性流体材料模型、三项式物态方程和导热系数与状态的相关性，给出了傅里叶热传导、接触传热、热应力应变效应、以及混合物冲击压缩特性等算例。对混合物冲击温度的数值模拟表明，小颗粒混合物在冲击压缩过程中，颗粒间的温度有差别、稍有波动，并随时间趋向于一致，以至热平衡。     

Scale-free behavior of the Internet global performance

Measurements and data analysis have proved very effective in the study of the Internet's physical fabric and have shown heterogeneities and statistical fluctuations extending over several orders of magnitude. Here we focus on the relationship between the Round-Trip-Time (RTT) and the geographical distance. We define dimensionless variables that contain information on the quality of Internet connections finding that their probability distributions are characterized by a slow power-law decay signalling the presence of scale-free features. These results point out the extreme heterogeneity of Internet delay since the transmission speed between different points of the network exhibits very large fluctuations. The associated scaling exponents appear to have fairly stable values in different data sets and thus define an invariant characteristic of the Internet that might be used in the future as a benchmark of the overall state of “health” of the Internet. Received 25 January 2003 Published online 7 May 2003     

Metastability of a circular o-ring due to intrinsic curvature

An o-ring takes spontaneously the shape of a chair when strong enough torsion is applied in its tangent plane. This state is metastable, since work has to be done on the o-ring to return to the circular shape. We show that this metastable state exists in a Hamiltonian where curvature and torsion are coupled via an intrinsic curvature term. If the o-ring is constrained to be planar (2d case), this metastable state displays a kink-anti-kink pair. This state is metastable if the ratio is less than , where C and A are the torsion and the bending elastic constants [#!landau!#]. In three dimensions, our variational approach shows that . This model can be generalized to the case where the bend is induced by a concentration field which follows the variations of the curvature. Received: 27 August 1997 / Revised: 23 October 1997 / Accepted: 12 November 1997     

现代热力学的完整分类系统--非平衡非耗散热力学新领域

在同一体系中同时有多个不可逆过程时，不可逆过程之间会有相互影响，原来的非自发过程有可能在其他自发过程的影响下得以进行，这种现象就称为热力学耦合或反应耦合，长期以来，经典热力学把热力学第二定律的等式作为平衡体系的充分必要条件，其中隐含了一个前提性的假定，即经典热力学的对象只限于非耦合的体系，摈弃这一隐含的前提性假定以后，热力学自身就发展成为一个现代热力学的完整学术体系，适用于任何宏观体系（包括极其复杂的生命体系），现代热力学的完整学术体系中包含了一个崭新的非平衡非耗散热力学新领域，由于该领域属于热力学第二定律的等式部分，因此可以定量计算，并得到一系列理论计算的非平衡相图，与文献上报道的激尖低压金刚石合成等的大量实验数据相符。     

Making equation of state models predictive: Part 2: An improved PCP-SAFT equation of state

We use the PCP-SAFT equation of state, which is of the Van der Waals type and has a sound physical basis, to predict mixture properties, such as vapor–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria, as well as excess enthalpies. We use molecular properties, such as dipole moment, quadrupole moment, polarizability and dispersion interaction coefficients, that have been determined quantum mechanically in Part I of this publication and adjust the remaining three pure compound parameters to pure compound data. We finally present a new combination rule for the dispersion energy parameter ? that is based on the quantum mechanically determined data. The predictions based on quantum mechanically determined pure compound properties along with the new combination rule show an improved performance compared to the original PCP-SAFT combination rule.     

The Chemical Potential

The definition of the fundamental quantity, the chemical potential, is badly confused in the literature: there are at least three distinct definitions in various books and papers. While they all give the same result in the thermodynamic limit, major differences between them can occur for finite systems, in anomalous cases even for finite systems as large as a cm³. We resolve the situation by arguing that the chemical potential defined as the symbol μ conventionally appearing in the grand canonical density operator is the uniquely correct definition valid for all finite systems, the grand canonical ensemble being the only one of the various ensembles usually discussed (microcanonical, canonical, Gibbs, grand canonical) that is appropriate for statistical thermodynamics, whenever the chemical potential is physically relevant. The zero–temperature limit of this μ was derived by Perdew et al. for finite systems involving electrons, generally allowing for electron–electron interactions; we extend this derivation and, for semiconductors, we also consider the zero–T limit taken after the thermodynamic limit. The enormous finite size corrections (in macroscopic samples, e.g. 1 cm³) for one rather common definition of the c.p., found recently by Shegelski within the standard effective mass model of an ideal intrinsic semiconductor, are discussed. Also, two very–small–system examples are given, including a quantum dot.