Non equilibria

Consider, at t = 0, some non-equilibrium ensemble density P g(P. q°) on the constant energy hypersurface S, such that it is nonnalized to one. By Liouville s theorem, at a later time t the ensemble density becomes ((t) t(p. q)), where q) is die function that takes die current phase coordinates (p, q) to their initial values time (0 ago the fimctioii ( ) is uniquely detemiined by the equations of motion. The expectation value of any dynamical variable ilat time t is therefore... 

When a system is not in equilibrium, the mathematical description of fluctuations about some time-dependent ensemble average can become much more complicated than in the equilibrium case. However, starting with the pioneering work of Einstein on Brownian motion in 1905, considerable progress has been made in understanding time-dependent fluctuation phenomena in fluids. Modem treatments of this topic may be found in the texts by Keizer [21] and by van Kampen [22]. Nevertheless, the non-equilibrium theory is not yet at the same level of rigour or development as the equilibrium theory. Here we will discuss the theory of Brownian motion since it illustrates a number of important issues that appear in more general theories. 

As the time separation 11 -, s approaches w tlie second tenn in this correlation vanishes and the remaining tenn is the equilibrium density-density correlation fomuila for an ideal solution. The second possibility is to consider a non-equilibrium initial state, c(r, t) = (r). The averaged solution is [26]... 

Linear response theory is an example of a microscopic approach to the foundations of non-equilibrium thennodynamics. It requires knowledge of tire Hamiltonian for the underlying microscopic description. In principle, it produces explicit fomuilae for the relaxation parameters that make up the Onsager coefficients. In reality, these expressions are extremely difficult to evaluate and approximation methods are necessary. Nevertheless, they provide a deeper insight into the physics. 

The current frontiers for the subject of non-equilibrium thennodynamics are rich and active. Two areas dommate interest non-linear effects and molecular bioenergetics. The linearization step used in the near equilibrium regime is inappropriate far from equilibrium. Progress with a microscopic kinetic theory [38] for non-linear fluctuation phenomena has been made. Carefiil experiments [39] confinn this theory. Non-equilibrium long range correlations play an important role in some of the light scattering effects in fluids in far from equilibrium states [38, 39]. 

Fox R F 1969 Contributions to the theory of non-equilibrium thermodynamics PhD Thesis Rockefeller University, New York... 

Fox R F and Uhlenbeck G E 1970 Contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics. II. Fluctuation theory for the Boltzmann equation Rhys. Fluids 13 2881... 

McLennan J A 1989 Introduction to Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall) ch 9... 

Another possibility is that a system may be held in a constrained equilibrium by external forces and thus be in a non-equilibrium steady state (NESS). In this case, the spatio-temporal correlations contain new ingredients, which are also exemplified in section A3.3.2. 

There are tliree steps in the calculation first, solve the frill nonlinear set of hydrodynamic equations in the steady state, where the time derivatives of all quantities are zero second, linearize about the steady-state solutions third, postulate a non-equilibrium ensemble through a generalized fluctuation dissipation relation. 

There are many examples in nature where a system is not in equilibrium and is evolving in time towards a thennodynamic equilibrium state. (There are also instances where non-equilibrium and time variation appear to be a persistent feature. These include chaos, oscillations and strange attractors. Such phenomena are not considered here.)... 

For non-zero and the problem of defining the thennodynamic state fiinctions under non-equilibrium conditions arises (see chapter A3,2). The definition of rate of change implied by equation (A3,4,1) and equation (A3.4.2) includes changes that are not due to chemical reactions. 

An important example for the application of general first-order kinetics in gas-phase reactions is the master equation treatment of the fall-off range of themial unimolecular reactions to describe non-equilibrium effects in the weak collision limit when activation and deactivation cross sections (equation (A3.4.125)) are to be retained in detail [ ]. 

Progress in the theoretical description of reaction rates in solution of course correlates strongly with that in other theoretical disciplines, in particular those which have profited most from the enonnous advances in computing power such as quantum chemistry and equilibrium as well as non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of liquid solutions where Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations in many cases have taken on the traditional role of experunents, as they allow the detailed investigation of the influence of intra- and intemiolecular potential parameters on the microscopic dynamics not accessible to measurements in the laboratory. No attempt, however, will be made here to address these areas in more than a cursory way, and the interested reader is referred to the corresponding chapters of the encyclopedia. 

Van der Zwan G and Hynes J T 1984 A simple dipole isomerization model for non-equilibrium solvation dynamics in reactions in polar solvents Chem. Phys. 90 21-35... 

In spectroscopy it is common for transitions to be observed as absorptive lines because the Boltzmaim distribution, at equilibrium, ensures a higher population of the lower state than the upper state. Examples where emission is observed, which are by definition non-equilibrium situations, are usually cases where excess population is created in the higher level by infiising energy into the system from an external source. 

By examining the expression for Q ( equation (B1.16.4)). it should now be clear that the nuclear spin state influences the difference in precessional frequencies and, ultimately, the likelihood of intersystem crossing, tlnough the hyperfme tenn. It is this influence of nuclear spin states on electronic intersystem crossing which will eventually lead to non-equilibrium distributions of nuclear spin states, i.e. spin polarization, in the products of radical reactions, as we shall see below. 

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