Gibbs statistical mechanics

Let us investigate the nonrelativistic ideal gas of identical particles governed by the classical Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics in the framework of the Tsallis and Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics. 

The main theoretical framework of the static aspect of statistical thermodynamics is Gibbs statistical mechanics. The universal behavior of macroscopic objects... 

In passing one should note that the metliod of expressing the chemical potential is arbitrary. The amount of matter of species in this article, as in most tliemiodynamics books, is expressed by the number of moles nit can, however, be expressed equally well by the number of molecules N. (convenient in statistical mechanics) or by the mass m- (Gibbs original treatment). 

The non-consen>ed variable (.t,0 is a broken symmetry variable, it is the instantaneous position of the Gibbs surface, and it is the translational synnnetry in z direction that is broken by the inlioinogeneity due to the liquid-vapour interface. In a more microscopic statistical mechanical approach 121, it is related to the number density fluctuation 3p(x,z,t) as... 

Nearly ten years ago, Tsallis proposed a possible generalization of Gibbs-Boltzmann statistical mechanics. [1] He built his intriguing theory on a reexpression of the Gibbs-Shannon entropy S = —k Jp r) np r)dr written... 

Gibbs, J.W. (1902) Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics, Developed with Special Reference to the Rational Foundations of Thermodynamics (Yale University Press, New Haven). 

About 1902, J. W. Gibbs (1839-1903) introduced statistical mechanics with which he demonstrated how average values of the properties of a system could be predicted from an analysis of the most probable values of these properties found from a large number of identical systems (called an ensemble). Again, in the statistical mechanical interpretation of thermodynamics, the key parameter is identified with a temperature, which can be directly linked to the thermodynamic temperature, with the temperature of Maxwell s distribution, and with the perfect gas law. 

The Gibbs free energy is given in terms of the enthalpy and entropy, G — H — TS. The enthalpy and entropy for a macroscopic ensemble of particles may be calculated from properties of the individual molecules by means of statistical mechanics. 

The work on gas theory had many extensions. In 1865 Johann Josef Loschmidt used estimates of the mean free path to make the first generally accepted estimate of atomic diameters. In later papers Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, and Josiah Willard Gibbs extended the rrratherrratics beyorrd gas theory to a new gerreralized science of statistical mechanics. Whenjoined to quantum mechanics, this became the foundation of much of modern theoretical con-derrsed matter physics. 

It is beyond our control how the cross-links are spaced along the polymer chains during the vulcanization process. This extraordinary important fact demands a generalization of the Gibbs formula in statistical mechanics for amorphous materials that have fixed constraints of which the exact topology is unknown. Details of a modified Gibbs formula of polymer networks can be found in the pioneering paper of Deam and Edwards [13]. 

The acceptance criteria for the Gibbs ensemble were originally derived from fluctuation theory [17]. An approximation was implicitly made in the derivation that resulted in a difference in the acceptance criterion for particle transfers proportional to 1/N relative to the exact expressions given subsequently [18]. A full development of the statistical mechanics of the ensemble was given by Smit et al. [19] and Smit and Frenkel [20], which we follow here. A one-component system at constant temperature T, total volume V, and total number of particles N is divided into two regions, with volumes Vj and Vu = V - V, and number of particles Aq and Nu = N - N. The partition function, Q NVt is... 

J. Gibbs Fundamental principles of statistical mechanics , Moscow-Leningrad, Gostekhizdat , in Russian (1946). 

Binary solutions have been extensively studied in the last century and a whole range of different analytical models for the molar Gibbs energy of mixing have evolved in the literature. Some of these expressions are based on statistical mechanics, as we will show in Chapter 9. However, in situations where the intention is to find mathematical expressions that are easy to handle, that reproduce experimental data and that are easily incorporated in computations, polynomial expressions obviously have an advantage. 

Gibbs found the solution of the fundamental Equation 9.1 only for the case of moderate surfaces, for which application of the classic capillary laws was not a problem. But, the importance of the world of nanoscale objects was not as pronounced during that period as now. The problem of surface curvature has become very important for the theory of capillary phenomena after Gibbs. R.C. Tolman, F.P. Buff, J.G. Kirkwood, S. Kondo, A.I. Rusanov, RA. Kralchevski, A.W. Neimann, and many other outstanding researchers devoted their work to this field. This problem is directly related to the development of the general theory of condensed state and molecular interactions in the systems of numerous particles. The methods of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and other approaches of modem molecular physics were applied [11,22,23],... 

We conclude this section by presenting the general statistical mechanical expression for the solvation Gibbs energy of any solute ot, ... 

Gibbs and DiMarzio [47] (GD) first developed a systematic statistical mechanical theory of glass formation in polymer fluids, based on experimental observations and on lattice model calculations by Meyer, Flory, Huggins, and... 

The early work of Gibbs (22) in the field of statistical mechanics, which has been supplemented and extended by many workers (20, 72), has assisted in the interpretation and coordination of experimental results. The science of statistical mechanics has been of particular value in establishing the heat capacity of hydrocarbons at infinite attenuation. However, much progress must be made before it will be possible to predict from statistical mechanics the characteristics of a phase from a knowledge of its state. The period between 1925 and 1950 has been characterized by substantial progress in the accumulation of experimental data from which concordant theories or generalizations may be developed. 

It is noteworthy that Gibbs himself was acutely aware of the qualitative failures of 19th-century molecular theory (as revealed, for example, by erroneous classical predictions of heat capacities Sidebar 3.8). In the preface to his Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics, Developed with Especial Reference to the Rational Foundation of Thermodynamics (published in the last year of his life), Gibbs wrote ... 

As indicated, Gibbs warily averted molecular dynamic assumptions to formulate an alternative ensemble-based reformulation of statistical mechanics that was able to seamlessly survive the revolutionary changes of 20th-century quantum theory, much to the approval of Einstein (see Sidebar 5.1) and others in the forefront of that revolution (see, e.g., Schrodinger s statement, Sidebar 13.4). 

In the following, we first describe (Section 13.3.1) a statistical mechanical formulation of Mayer and co-workers that anticipated certain features of thermodynamic geometry. We then outline (Section 13.3.2) the standard quantum statistical thermodynamic treatment of chemical equilibrium in the Gibbs canonical ensemble in order to trace the statistical origins of metric geometry in Boltzmann s probabilistic assumptions. In the concluding two sections, we illustrate how modem ab initio molecular calculations can be enlisted to predict thermodynamic properties of chemical reaction (Sections 13.3.3) and cluster equilibrium mixtures (Section 13.3.4), thereby relating chemical and phase thermodynamics to a modem ab initio electronic stmcture picture of molecular and supramolecular interactions. 

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