Nonequilibrium Cooperative Phenomena In Physics And Related Fields

Nonequilibrium Cooperative Phenomena in Physics and Related Fields

This volume contains the lectures and invited seminars pre sented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on NON-EQUILIBRIUM COOPERATIVE PHENOMENA IN PHYSICS AND RELATED FIELDS that was held at EL ESCORIAL (MADRID), SPAIN, on August 1-11, 1983. Most nonlinear problems in dissipative systems, i . e . , most mathematical models in SYNERGETICS are highly trans disciplinary in practice and the list of lecturers and participants at the ASI reflects this di versi ty both in background and interest. The presentation of the material fell into two main categories: tutopia~ Zectures on some basic ideas and methods, both experimental and theoretical, intended to lay a common base for all participants, and a series of more specific lectures and seminars, serving the purpose of exemplying selected but typical applications in their current state of development. Topics were chosen for their basic interest as well as for their potential for applications (laser, hydrodynamics, liquid crystals, EHD, combustion, thermoelasticity, etc. ). We had more seminars and some of the oral presentations were supported or complemented with 16 mm films and on occasion with experimental demonstrations including a special seminar, a social one on broken symmetries in Art and Music. There is here no record of these non-standard acti vi ties. We had, indeed, quite a heavy load for which I was fully responsible. However, the reader and, above all, the participants at the ASI ought to be aware of the fact that in Spain, with.

Nonequilibrium Cooperative Phenomena in Physics and Related Fields

Non-equilibrium Statistical Thermodynamics

This book stresses the role of uncorrelated exchange of properties between macroscopic systems and their surroundings as the only source of dynamic irreversibility. To that end, fundamentals of statistical thermodynamics extended to the non-equilibrium are worked out carefully. The principles are then applied to selected problems in classical fluid dynamics. Transport coefficients are first derived from basic laws. This is followed by a full discussion of transitions to dissipative structures in selected systems far removed from equilibrium (B‚nard and Taylor vortices, calculation of the critical Reynolds number for transition to turbulence in Poiseuille flow). The final part focuses on interaction of matter with light. Fundamentals are extended towards quantum-mechanical systems. Applied to coherent radiation and its interaction with matter, the proposed thermodynamic treatment introduces an original discussion into the quantum nature of micro-physics.The book questions and reconsiders a deeply rooted paradigm in macroscopic dynamics concerning the cause of irreversibility. The new proposal is illustrated by application to a couple of well documented non-equilibrium domains, namely fluid dynamics and laser physics.