Statistical thermodynamics of long-range interacting systems and near-field thermal radiation
Two main topics are examined in this thesis: classical systems with long-range interactions and thermal radiation in the near-field regime. In the first part, we present a thermodynamic approach describing systems with long-range interactions which takes into account the intrinsic nonadditivity in t...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | CBUC, CESCA |
| Repositorio: | TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/400405 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10803/400405 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Termodinàmica Termodinámica Thermodynamics Mecànica estadística Mecánica estadística Statistical mechanics Absorció de calor Absorción de calor Heat absorption Ciències Experimentals i Matemàtiques 538.9 |
| Sumario: | Two main topics are examined in this thesis: classical systems with long-range interactions and thermal radiation in the near-field regime. In the first part, we present a thermodynamic approach describing systems with long-range interactions which takes into account the intrinsic nonadditivity in these systems. The basic concept behind this approach is to consider a large ensemble of replicas of the system where the standard formulation of thermodynamics can be naturally applied and the properties of a single system can be consequently inferred. The formulation of the thermodynamic for these systems is in close connection with Hill's thermodynamics of systems with small number of particles. It is shown that systems with long-range interactions can attain equilibrium configurations in the unconstrained ensemble. In this statistical ensemble, the control parameters are the temperature, pressure, and chemical potential, while the energy, volume, and number of particles fluctuate. We consider a solvable model as a concrete example of a system that achieves stable equilibria in this ensemble. We also give a complete description of the phase-diagram of the Thirring model in both the microcanonical and the canonical ensemble, highlighting the main features of ensemble inequivalence. I the second part, we study energy and entropy fluxes of near-field thermal radiation in many-body systems, with application to energy-conversion processes. It is shown that the maximum work that can be obtained from the thermal radiation emitted by two planar sources in the near-field regime is much larger than that corresponding to the blackbody limit. This quantity as well as an upper bound for the efficiency of the process are computed from the formulation of thermodynamics in the near-field regime. The case when the difference of temperatures of the hot source and the environment is small, relevant for energy harvesting, is studied in detail. We also show that thermal radiation energy conversion can be more efficient in the near-field regime. Moreover, by analyzing the thermodynamic performance of three-body near-field heat engines, we demonstrate that the power they supply can be substantially larger than that of two-body systems, showing their strong potential for energy harvesting. Theoretical limits for energy and entropy fluxes in three-body systems are discussed and compared with their corresponding two-body counterparts. Such considerations confirm that the thermodynamic availability in energy-conversion processes driven by three-body photon tunneling can exceed the thermodynamic availability in two-body systems. |
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