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Dynamical Mechanisms Leading To Equilibration In Two-Component Gases, Stephan De Bievre, Carlos Mejia-Monasterio, Paul Ernest Parris
Dynamical Mechanisms Leading To Equilibration In Two-Component Gases, Stephan De Bievre, Carlos Mejia-Monasterio, Paul Ernest Parris
Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works
Demonstrating how microscopic dynamics cause large systems to approach thermal equilibrium remains an elusive, longstanding, and actively pursued goal of statistical mechanics. We identify here a dynamical mechanism for thermalization in a general class of two-component dynamical Lorentz gases and prove that each component, even when maintained in a nonequilibrium state itself, can drive the other to a thermal state with a well-defined effective temperature.