We discuss some aspects of interactions of high-frequency electromagnetic waves with plasmas, assuming that the intensity of radiation is sufficiently large, so that the photon-photon interaction is more likely than the photon-plasma particle interaction. In the stationary limit, solving the kinetic equation of the photon gas, we derive a distribution function. With this distribution function a...

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In this lecture we briefly review the definition, consequences and applications of an entropy, Sq, which generalizes the usual Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy SBG (S1 = SBG), basis of the usual statistical mechanics, well known to be applicable whenever ergodicity is satisfied at the microscopic dynamical level. Such entropy Sq is based on the notion of q-exponential and presents properties not shared ...

This paper uses methods drawn from physics to study the life cycle of viruses. The paper analyzes a model of viral infection and evolution using the "grand canonical ensemble" and formalisms from statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. Using this approach we enumerate all possible genetic states of a model virus and host as a function of two independent pressures-immune response and system te...

Although we have convincing evidence that a black hole bears an entropy proportional to its surface (horizon) area, the “statistical mechanical” explanation of this entropy remains unknown. Two basic questions in this connection are: what is the microscopic origin of the entropy, and why does the law of entropy increase continue to hold when the horizon entropy is included? After a review of so...

In phenomenological thermodynamics, the canonical coordinates of a physical system split in pairs, with each pair consisting of an extensive quantity and an intensive one. In the present paper, the quasithermodynamic fluctuation theory of a model system of a large number of oscillators is extended to statistical thermodynamics based on the idea of perceiving the fluctuations of intensive variab...

The behavior of a solution of equilibrium polymers (or living polymers) at an interface is studied, using a Bethe-Guggenheim lattice model for molecules with orientation dependent interactions. The density profile of polymers and the chain length distribution are calculated. For equilibrium polymers at a nonadsorbing surface it is found that the depletion layer thickness has a maximum. In dilut...

I explore the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics by treating the former as a control theory: A theory of which transitions between states can be induced on a system (assumed to obey some known underlying dynamics) by means of operations from a fixed list. I recover the results of standard thermodynamics in this framework on the assumption that the available operations do not i...

Several aspects of the Thermodynamics of systems away from equilibrium are considered. Particular attention is given to the question of the concepts of entropy and temperature in arbitrary nonequilibrium conditions. Even though such state function and thermodynamic variable are elusive in such conditions, it is elaborated and discussed an approach to them that can be obtained in the framework o...