A new approach to irreversibility in deep inelastic collisions

We use concepts of statistical mechanics to discuss the irreversible character of the experimental data in deep inelastic collisions. A definition of irreversibility proposed by Ruch permits a unified overview on current theories which describe these reactions. An information theoretical analysis of the data leads to a Fokker-Planck equation for the collective variables (excitation energy, charge and mass). The concept of mixing distance can serve as a quantitative measure to characterize the “approach to equilibrium”. We apply it to the brownian motion as an illustration and also to the phenomenological analysis of deep inelastic scattering data with interesting results.