We argue that contrary to recent suggestions, nonextensive statistical mechanics has no relevance for inhomogeneous systems of particles interacting by short-range potentials. We show that these systems are perfectly well described by the usual Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics.

Alternative definitions are given of basic concepts of generalized thermostatistics. In particular, generalizations of Shannon’s entropy, of the Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution, and of relative entropy are considered. Particular choices made in Tsallis’ nonextensive thermostatistics are questioned.

– We present an analysis of the statistical properties of hydrodynamic field fluctuations which reveal the existence of precursors to fingering processes. These precursors are found to exhibit power law distributions, and these power laws are shown to follow from spatial q-Gaussian structures which are solutions to the non-linear porous media equation. Over the past fifteen years, a nonextensiv...