Thermodynamics Beyond Molecules: Statistical Thermodynamics of Probability Distributions

Thermodynamics "beyond" local equilibrium.

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics has shown its applicability in a wide variety of different situations pertaining to fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. As successful as it is, however, its current formulation considers only systems close to equilibrium, those satisfying the so-called local equilibrium hypothesis. Here we show that diffusion processes that occur far away f...

Statistical thermodynamics for chain molecules with simple RNA tertiary contacts.

A statistical thermodynamic model is developed for chain molecules with simple RNA tertiary contacts. The model, which accounts for the excluded volume effect and the nonadditivity in the free energy, enables reliable predictions for the conformational entropy and partition function for simple tertiary folds. Illustrative applications are made to conformational transitions involving simple tert...

Statistical Thermodynamics - Fall 2009

Molecular theory can be considered as a preliminary to statistical physics. While the latter employs a more sophisticated formalism encompassing quantum-mechanical systems, the former operates with a classical ideal gas. Molecular theory studies the relation between the temperature of the gas and the kinetic energy of the molecules, pressure on the walls due to the impact of the molecules, dist...

Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics

Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

The field of thermodynamics is easiest to understand in the context of Newtonian mechanics. Newtonian mechanics describes the effect of forces on objects. Thermodynamics describes the effect of heat transfer on objects. When heat is transferred,the temperature of an object changes.Temperature and heat are also intimately related to energy. A hot gas in a piston has a high pressure and it can do...