Issue |
EPL
Volume 95, Number 2, July 2011
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 20006 | |
Number of page(s) | 4 | |
Section | General | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/95/20006 | |
Published online | 01 July 2011 |
Questioning the validity of non-extensive thermodynamics for classical Hamiltonian systems
Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université Libre de Bruxelles CP 231, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, EU
a
jlutsko@ulb.ac.be
b
jpboon@ulb.ac.be
Received:
17
April
2011
Accepted:
3
June
2011
We examine the non-extensive approach to the statistical mechanics of Hamiltonian systems with H=T+V, where T is the classical kinetic energy. Our analysis starts from the basics of the formalism by applying the standard variational method for maximizing the entropy subject to the average energy and normalization constraints. The analytical results show i) that the non-extensive thermodynamics formalism should be called into question to explain experimental results described by extended exponential distributions exhibiting long tails, i.e. q-exponentials with q>1, and ii) that in the thermodynamic limit the theory is only consistent in the range 0≤q≤1 where the distribution has finite support, thus implying that configurations with, e.g., energy above some limit have zero probability, which is at variance with the physics of systems in contact with a heat reservoir. We also discuss the (q-dependent) thermodynamic temperature and the generalized specific heat.
PACS: 05.20.Jj – Statistical mechanics of classical fluids / 05.70.Ce – Thermodynamic functions and equations of state
© EPLA, 2011
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