Thermo-statistics of irreversible processes: a Boltzmann-Gibbs-style ensemble formalism

Abstract

The area of Physics indicated in the title is nowadays of quite relevant interest, not only from the purely scientific point of view, but specially for its applied aspects associated to the present-time point-first-technologies. A particular research trend in the theory of irreversible processes, which are evolving in time in systems arbitrarily departed from equilibrium, is here briefly described. It consists in the construction of a Gibbs-style nonequilibrium ensemble formalism. The derivation of a nonequilibrium statistical operator is described (the variational approach of Predictive Statistical Mechanics is used). The main questions involved are presented and applications are briefly mentioned.

A Derivation of the Gibbs Equation and the Determination of Change in Gibbs Entropy from Calorimetry

“…[20] There have been many discussions of Gibbs (Boltzmann) entropy and its relationship to thermodynamics; for examples see the references therein. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] Here, we use a different approach.…”