Ma. Tenan et al., STATISTICAL-MECHANICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR A GENERALIZED THERMODYNAMICS OF DISSIPATIVE PROCESSES, Fortschritte der Physik, 45(1), 1997, pp. 1-37
A statistical-mechanical formalism for nonequilibrium systems, namely
the nonequilibrium statistical operator method, provides microscopic f
oundations for a generalized thermodynamics of dissipative processes.
This formalism is based on a unifying variational approach that is con
sidered to be encompassed in Jaynes' Predictive Statistical Mechanics
and principle of maximization of the statistical-informational entropy
. Within the framework of the statistical thermodynamics that follows
from the method, we demonstrate the existence of generalized forms of
the theorem of minimum (informational) entropy production, the criteri
on for evolution, and the thermodynamic (in)stability criterion. The f
ormalism is not restricted to local equilibrium but, in principle, to
general conditions (its complete domain of validity is not yet fully d
etermined). A H-theorem associated to the formalism is presented in th
e form of an increase of the informational entropy along the evolution
of the system. Some of the results are illustrated in an application
to the study of a model for a photoexcited direct-gap semiconductor.