I. Koponen, THERMALIZATION OF AN ELECTRON-PHONON SYSTEM IN A NONEQUILIBRIUM STATECHARACTERIZED BY FRACTAL DISTRIBUTION OF PHONON EXCITATIONS, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics, 55(6), 1997, pp. 7759-7762
The thermalization of an electron-phonon system in a nonequilibrium st
ate characterized by a fractal distribution of phonon excitations is c
alculated in a novel way, which takes into account the unusual, invers
e power-law type distribution of phonon energies. The calculations are
done from the first principles, based on a nonequilibrium statistical
operator combined with the recently proposed generalized, nonextensiv
e thermostatistics. As a result the usual linear (Newtonian) energy tr
ansfer rate (Q) over dot proportional to - (T-p-T-e) is replaced by a
nonlinear rate (Q) over dot proportional to - (T-p(q)-T-e(q)), where q
greater than or equal to 1 is related to the fractality of the excita
tion energy distribution. Consequences of this result for a thermal re
laxation of the nonequilibrium phonon system are discussed.