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arXiv · 1807.05945

Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics of Two-dimensional Vortices

Renato Pakter·Yan Levin
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Abstract

It has been observed empirically that two dimensional vortices tend to cluster forming a giant vortex. To account for this observation Onsager introduced a concept of negative absolute temperature in equilibrium statistical mechanics. In this Letter we will show that in the thermodynamic limit a system of interacting vortices does not relax to the thermodynamic equilibrium, but becomes trapped in a non-equilibrium stationary state. We will show that the vortex distribution in this non-equilibrium stationary state has a characteristic core-halo structure, which can be predicted {\it a priori}. All the theoretical results are compared with explicit molecular dynamics simulations.

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BibTeXRIS

Renato Pakter, Yan Levin. 2018-07-16. Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics of Two-dimensional Vortices. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.121.020602

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