Please distribute to others who may be interested... You are hereby invited to a seminar in our twelfth interdisciplinary series on Evolution, Complexity and Cognition <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108> (ECCO 2017-2018) <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marjoriikka_Ylisiurua>
Time: Friday November 10, 14h-16h Place: *room * *D.1.07*, building D, VUB ------------------------------ Non-equilibrium thermodynamics from First Principle Atanu Chatterjee <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Atanu_Chatterjee5> Abstract: In this talk I present a fundamental first principles approach to understand non-equilibrium phenomena and the onset of complexity in nature. I begin the talk by putting forward a simple observation, the analogous of the Principle of Equivalence in Thermodynamics. I probe this by laying out an equivalent field-theoretic approach to classical thermodynamics. The central core of this idea is to identify a thermodynamically open system as a scalar field over a symplectic energy manifold. Once the Lagrangian density is defined in terms of thermodynamic state variables, the Euler-Lagrange equations yield the steady-state energy conservation law. The salient feature of this formulation is the emergence of the spatial and temporal derivatives of these state variables as non-equilibrium corrections to the First Law of Thermodynamics. I thus put forward a generalized First Law equation, which has a virial-like expansion of the state variables and their higher-order spatial and temporal derivatives. Moreover, the generalized First Law hints at the presence of a pair of constants, that corresponds to characteristic time and length scales for physical systems at various orders of complexity. ------------------------------ Upcoming Seminars *November 17th* Katarina Petrovic On cosmogony: approaching the unknowable origin *November 24th* Paul B Rainey Origins of multicellular life *December 1st* Francis Heylighen Social system programming: emotional and behavioural mechanisms co-opted for social control -- Cadell ECCO Group (VUB) <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/1> Email: [email protected] Website: https://cadelllast.com
