SAIP2012

Critical exponents and the extensive nature of statistical entropy

12 Jul 2012, 08:00

20m

Oral Presentation Track G - Theoretical and Computational Physics Theoretical

Speaker

Dr Trisha Salagaram (University of Pretoria)

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Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)

In numerical studies of a system of N independent, distinguishable, non-interacting particles in the microcanonical ensemble, we explicitly show for the first time that the entropy per particle, s_N , converges to a constant real number, s_∞, in the thermodynamic limit, independent of the single-particle spectrum. We show in a direct manner the extensive nature of entropy, and we demonstrate universal scaling behaviour for ( s_N − s_∞ ) ∼ N ^−α, where α is the critical exponent. We derive thermodynamic quantities, such as temperature and chemical potential, etc. for finite systems of size N.

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