Frontiers of Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics

The four-week period fran May 20 to June 16, 1984 was an intensive period of advanced study on the foundations and frontiers of nonequili­ brium statistical physics (NSP). During the first two weeks of this period, an advanced-study course on the "Foundations of NSP" was con­ ducted in Albuquerque under the sponsorship of the University of New Mexico Center for High-Technology Materials. This was followed by a two-week NATO Advanced Study Insti tute on the "Frontiers of NSP" in Santa Fe under the same directorship. Many Students attended both meetings. This book comprises proceedings based on those lectures and covering a broad spectrum of topics in NSP ranging fran basic problems in quantum measurement theory to analogies between lasers and Darwinian evolution. The various types of quantum distribution functions and their uses are treated by several authors. other tools of NSP, such as Langevin equations, Fokker-Planck equations, and master equations, are developed and applied to areas such as laser physics, plasma physics, Brownian motion, and hydrodynamic instabilities. The properties and experimental detection of squeezed states and antibunching are described, as well as experimental tests of the violation of Bell's inequality. Information theory, mean-field theory, reservoir theory, entropy maximization, and even a novel nonlinear generalization of quantum mechanics are used to discuss nonequilibrium phenanena and the approach toward thermodynamic equilibrium.

Inhalt

Foundations.- Approach to Thermodynamic Equilibrium (and Other Stationary States).- "Physics as Meaning Circuit": Three Problems.- Predictive Statistical Mechanics.- Bifurcation Geometry in Physics.- Quantum Distribution Functions in Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics.- Positive and Negative Joint Quantum Distributions.- Three Lectures on the Foundations of Quantum Theory and Quantum Electrodynamics.- The Interface Between Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics.- How to Make Quantum Mechanics Look Like a Hidden-Variable Theory and Vice Versa.- A Classical Model of EPR Experiment with Quantum Mechanical Correlations and Bell Inequalities.- Reduction of the Wavepacket: How Long Does it Take?.- Maxwell's Demon, Szilard's Engine and Quantum Measurements.- Experimental Tests of Bell's Inequalities With Pairs of Low Energy Correlated Photons.- Cotment on "A Classical Model of EPR Experiment with Quantum Mechanical Correlations and Bell Inequalities".- Fluctuations, Irreversibility, and Chaos.- A General Nonlinear Evolution Equation for Irreversible Conservative Approach to Stable Equilibrium.- Intrinsic Entropy and Intrinsic Irreversibility for a Single Isolated Constituent of Matter: Broader Kinematics and Generalized Nonlinear Dynamics.- Use of Quantum Trajectories for Time-Dependent Problems.- Equation of Motion for Correlation Function of Strongly-Coupled Plasma.- Quantum Brownian Motion.- The Scaling Relation Between the Microscopic (Kinetic) and Macroscopic (Hydrodynamic) Descriptions.- Retarded Systems: The Road to Chaos.- Quantum Optics.- The One-Atari Maser - A Test System for Simple Quantum Electro-Dynamic Effects.- What are Squeezed States Really Like?.- Quantum Statistics of Nonlinear Optics.- Photon Statistics, Antibunching and Squeezed States.- Empty Nonlinear Optical Resonators.- An Example of Symmetry Breaking in Nonlinear Optics.- Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics in a Dithered Ring Laser Gyroscope or Quantum Noise in Pure and Applied Physics.- General.- Darwinian Evolution in Physics and Biology: The Dilerrma of Missing Links.- Self-Consistent Mean Field Theories.- Entropy, Information and Quantum Geometry.- Phase Transitions in Nonequilibrium Systems: Dye Lasers and Lasers with Saturable Absorbers.- Nonequilibrium Phenomena at Incommensurate Phase Transitions.- On the Quasiparticle- and Super-Current at the Finite Temperature Josephson Junction.- Contributors.