THERMODYNAMIC LIMIT BEYOND THE STOCHASTICITY THRESHOLD IN NONLINEAR CHAINS

We present numerical experiments on Hamiltonian nonlinear chains at fi xed specific energy in the stochastic domain with a growing number of degrees of freedom, up to N=2048. Previous results on the rates of cha nges of action variables, with reference to translational invariance, are confirmed and specified. Furthermore, for models with other conser ved quantities beside energy, an increasing number of degrees of freed om shows an increasing deviation from equipartition. Globally, the app roach to equilibrium seems to be slower at larger N. This could cast a shadow over the effectiveness of stochasticity for systems with bound ed spectrum and infinite degrees of freedom.