Statistical Mechanics in General Relativity and Gravitational Physics

广义相对论和引力物理中的统计力学

• 批准号: 9203333
• 负责人: Henry Kandrup
• 金额: $ 7.14万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-08-01 至 1996-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9203333&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Statistical; Mechanics; General; Relativity; Gravitational

The objective of this research is to apply recently developed ideas and techniques from statistical mechanics, plasma physics, and, particularly, dynamical systems theory to problems involving the evolution of self-gravitating systems of objects, both Newtonianly and in general relativity. One general problem to be considered is the "relaxation" and stability of galaxies and galactic nuclei. Two principal aims here are (a) to understand from first principles the origins of the observed similarities amongst galaxies, a nontrivial issue in that the nominal relaxation time tR is typically orders of magnitude larger than the age of the Universe; and related to this, (b) to understand how galaxies respond to strong external stimuli, as provided, e.g., by collisions with other galaxies, by very rapidly evolving towards a new statistical equilibrium. The other area to be considered entails an application of ideas from statistical physics to quantum field theory in the early Universe. Two principal aims here are (a) the modeling of phase transitions and other quantum field theoretic processes as simple stochastic processes and (b) an analysis of particle creation in the early Universe, with the ultimate aim of obtaining an improved understanding of "gravitational entropy" and the observed "arrow of time."

这项研究的目的是应用最近 发展了统计力学的思想和技术， 等离子体物理学，特别是动力系统理论， 自引力系统演化问题 牛顿理论和广义相对论中的物体。 一 要考虑的一般问题是“放松”， 星系和星系核的稳定性。 两个主要目标 这里有（a）从第一原理理解起源， 星系之间观察到的相似性，一个不平凡的 问题在于标称弛豫时间tR通常为 比宇宙年龄大几个数量级; 与此相关的，（B）了解星系如何响应 强烈的外部刺激，如所提供的，例如，通过与 其他星系，通过非常迅速地向一个新的星系进化， 统计均衡 另一个需要考虑的领域是 需要应用统计物理学的思想， 早期宇宙中的量子场论 两个主要 这里的目的是（a）相变和其他的建模 简单随机的量子场论过程 （B）在所述过程中的粒子产生的分析 早期宇宙，最终目的是获得一个改进的 理解“引力熵”和观察到的 时间之箭"