A Kinetic View Of Statistical Physics

This page intentionally left blank A Kinetic View of Statistical Physics Aimed at graduate students, this book explores some of the core phenomena in nonequilibrium statistical physics. It focuses on the development and application of theoretical methods to help students develop their problem-solving skills. The book begins with microscopic transport processes: diffusion, collision-driven phenomena, and exclusion. It then presents the kinetics of aggregation, fragmentation, and adsorption, where basic phenomenology and solution techniques are emphasized. The following chapters cover kinetic spin systems, by developing both a discrete and a continuum formulation, the role of disorder in non-equilibrium processes, and hysteresis from the nonequilibrium perspective. The concluding chapters address population dynamics, chemical reactions, and a kinetic perspective on complex networks. The book contains more than 200 exercises to test students’ understanding of the subject. A link to a website hosted by the authors, containing an up-to-date list of errata and instructor solutions to the exercises, can be found at www.cambridge.org/9780521851039. Pavel L. Krapivsky is Research Associate Professor of Physics at Boston University. His current research interests are in strongly interacting many-particle systems and their applications to kinetic spin systems, networks, and biological phenomena. Sidney Redner is a Professor of Physics at Boston University. His current research interests are in non-equilibrium statistical physics, and its applications to reactions, networks, social systems, biological phenomena, and first-passage processes. Eli Ben-Naim is a member of the Theoretical Division and an affiliate of the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He conducts research in statistical, nonlinear, and soft condensed-matter physics, including the collective dynamics of interacting particle and granular systems. A Kinetic View of Statistical Physics Pavel L. Krapivsky Boston University Sidney Redner Boston University Eli Ben-Naim Los Alamos National Laboratory CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521851039 © P. Krapivsky, S. Redner and E. Ben–Naim This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2010 ISBN-13