Skip to main content
Article
Microscopic Irreversibility and Gibbs Entropy
Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics
  • John D. Ramshaw, Portland State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-1991
Subjects
  • Time reversal,
  • Numerical analysis,
  • Gibbs' equation,
  • Solid-liquid interfaces -- Mathematical models
Disciplines
Abstract

In a recent paper of the same title [J. Non-Equilib. Thermodyn., 15 (1990), 151], Liboff observed that the fine-grained Gibbs entropy of a canonical Hamiltonian system remains constant in time even for Hamiltonians that are not even in momenta and consequently violate time-reversal invariance (TRI). Here we extend this observation to non-canonical Hamiltonian systems, including systems with singular Poisson tensors and pseudo-Hamiltonian systems that violate the Jacobi identity. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the Gibbs entropy to be constant in such systems. The concept of TRI is not in general meaningful for such systems, but it is shown that systems with constant entropy are always microscopically reversible in the Poincare recurrence sense, which implies that H- (Lyapunov) functions do not exist. This result applies as a special case to canonical systems, regardless of whether or not they obey TRI. A distinction should therefore be drawn between microscopic reversibility and TRI.

Description

This is the publisher's final PDF. Article appears in Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics (http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jnet) and is copyrighted by Walter De Gruyter.

DOI
10.1515/jnet.1990.15.2.151
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/7765
Citation Information
J.D. Ramshaw, "Microscopic Irreversibility and Gibbs Entropy," J. Non-Equilib. Thermodyn. 16, 33 (1991)