DYNAMICAL CHAOS AND NONEQUILIBRIUM STATISTICAL MECHANICS

Abstract

Chaos in the motion of atoms and molecules composing fluids is a new topic in nonequilibrium physics. Relationships have been established between the characteristic quantities of chaos and the transport coefficients thanks to the concept of fractal repeller and the escape-rate formalism. Moreover, the hydrodynamic modes of relaxation to the thermodynamic equilibrium as well as the nonequilibrium stationary states have turned out to be described by fractal-like singular distributions. This singular character explains the second law of thermodynamics as an emergent property of large chaotic systems. These and other results show the growing importance of ephemeral phenomena in modern physics.