Search results for "Configuration entropy"
showing 8 items of 18 documents
Entropy flux in non-equilibrium thermodynamics
2004
Abstract An important problem in thermodynamics is the link between the entropy flux and the heat flux, for phenomena far from equilibrium. As an illustration we consider here the case of a rigid heat conductor subject to heating. The expression of the entropy flux is determined by the expressions of the evolution equations of the basic variables. It is shown that the coefficient relating entropy and heat fluxes differs far from equilibrium from the inverse of the non-equilibrium temperature θ . The particular case in which these two quantities are identical is examined in detail. A simple but intuitive physical illustration of the results is proposed. A comparison with information theory i…
Entropic measure of spatial disorder for systems of finite-sized objects
2000
We consider the relative configurational entropy per cell S_Delta as a measure of the degree of spatial disorder for systems of finite-sized objects. It is highly sensitive to deviations from the most spatially ordered reference configuration of the objects. When applied to a given binary image it provides the quantitatively correct results in comparison to its point object version. On examples of simple cluster configurations, two-dimensional Sierpinski carpets and population of interacting particles, the behaviour of S_Delta is compared with the normalized information entropy H' introduced by Van Siclen [Phys. Rev. E 56, (1997) 5211]. For the latter example, the additional middle-scale fe…
Global stability of protein folding from an empirical free energy function
2013
The principles governing protein folding stand as one of the biggest challenges of Biophysics. Modeling the global stability of proteins and predicting their tertiary structure are hard tasks, due in part to the variety and large number of forces involved and the difficulties to describe them with sufficient accuracy. We have developed a fast, physics-based empirical potential, intended to be used in global structure prediction methods. This model considers four main contributions: Two entropic factors, the hydrophobic effect and configurational entropy, and two terms resulting from a decomposition of close-packing interactions, namely the balance of the dispersive interactions of folded an…
Geometric Entropies of Mixing (EOM)
2005
Trigonometric and trigonometric-algebraic entropies are introduced. Regularity increases the entropy and the maximal entropy is shown to result when a regular $n$-gon is inscribed in a circle. A regular $n$-gon circumscribing a circle gives the largest entropy reduction, or the smallest change in entropy from the state of maximum entropy which occurs in the asymptotic infinite $n$ limit. EOM are shown to correspond to minimum perimeter and maximum area in the theory of convex bodies, and can be used in the prediction of new inequalities for convex sets. These expressions are shown to be related to the phase functions obtained from the WKB approximation for Bessel and Hermite functions.
Detecting self-similarity in surface microstructures
2000
The relative configurational entropy per cell as a function of length scale is a sensitive detector of spatial self-similarity. For Sierpinski carpets the equally separated peaks of the above function appear at the length scales that depend on the kind of the carpet. These peaks point to the presence of self-similarity even for randomly perturbed initial fractal sets. This is also demonstrated for the model population of particles diffusing over the surface considered by Van Siclen, Phys. Rev. E 56 (1997) 5211. These results allow the subtle self-similarity traces to be explored.
I. Glass Transition. Theoretical concepts on the glass transition of polymers and their test by computer simulation
1996
Various organic molecules, in particular polymers, are extremely good glass formers and allow the study of supercooled melts near the glass transition in metastable equilibrium. Theories of the glass transition imply such an equilibrium (e.g. mode-coupling theory, or Gibbs-di Marzio theory) and can hence be tested in these systems. Simplified lattice models for polymer melts (e.g. the bond fluctuation model) have been developed that can very efficiently be studied by Monte-Carlo simulation, and although they fail to accurately describe the local structure, they describe many features of the experiments very well. In this model, the mechanism of the glass transition is a competition between …
Glass transition of polymer melts: Test of theoretical concepts by computer simulation.
2003
Abstract Polymers are good glass formers and allow for the study of melts near the glass transition in (meta-)stable equilibrium. Theories of the glass transition imply such an equilibrium and can, hence, be tested by the study of polymer melts. After a brief summary of the basic experimental facts about the glass transition in polymers, the main theoretical concepts are reviewed: mode coupling theory (MCT), entropy theory, free-volume theory, the idea of a growing length describing the size of cooperative regions, etc. Then, two basic coarse-grained models of polymers are described, which have been developed aiming at a test of these concepts. The first model is the bond-fluctuation model …
Monte carlo simulation of the glass transition of polymer melts
2007
The bond fluctuation model of polymer melts is presented as a reasonable compromise between simulation efficiency and realistic chemical detail. It is shown that inclusion of a potential energy that depends on the length of the effective bonds connecting the effective monomers easily creates a conflict between configurational entropy of dense packing and the energetic tendency of the bonds to stretch. This competition leads to a glass transition of the model, which very well describes many features of real systems.