PROBABILISTIC AND THERMODYNAMIC ASPECTS OF DYNAMICAL-SYSTEMS

The probabilistic approach to dynamical systems giving rise to irrever sible behavior at the macroscopic, mesoscopic, and microscopic levels of description is outlined. Signatures of the complexity of the underl ying dynamics on the spectral properties of the Liouville, Frobenius-P erron, and Fokker-Planck operators are identified. Entropy and entropy production-like quantities are introduced and the connection between their properties in nonequilibrium steady states and the characteristi cs of the dynamics in phase space are explored. (C) 1998 American Inst itute of Physics.