Dynamics and Thermodynamics of systems with long range interactions: theory and experiments

4 Jul 2007, 08:00 → 8 Jul 2007, 18:00 Europe/Rome

Assisi

Alessandro Campa (INFN - Sezione Istituto Superiore Sanità), Andrea Giansanti (Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome)

The theoretical scheme of statistical mechanics is a perfect tool to describe and predict equilibrium properties of many body systems where the interactions are of short range. If the interactions are of long range different problems arise such as: non existence of thermodynamic limit, nonequivalence of statistical ensambles, negative specific heats in the microcanonical ensemble. These problems originate from the lack of stability and temperedness typical of long range potentials. Similar problems are found in the statistical treatment of small systems, where the range of the interactions is comparable to the size of the systems.