Recent analyses of fluctuations in non-equilibrium systems by Prigogine, Malek-Mansour and Nicolis have indicated the existence of a minimal coherence length beyond which fluctuations can amplify and induce instabilities at a macroscopic scale. Conversely, this observation suggests the emergence...

The limitations of the traditional thermodynamic approach in dealing with the nonlinear range of irreversible processes are reviewed. It is suggested that to arrive at a satisfactory characterization of nonequilibrium states an enlarged formulation of thermodynamics, incorporating tools and...

The role of an intermediate metastable state in the fluctuation-induced transitions between two stable states is analyzed using generic kinetic models involving one and two order parameters. Conditions are identified under which the transition rate can be enhanced by the presence of the...

The role of an intermediate state in the kinetics of the passage between an initial and a final state is analyzed using a generic model involving one-order parameter and a sixth-order Landau-type potential. Applied to the problem of nucleation of protein crystals the model shows that the rate of...

An analytical method based on the classical ruin problem is developed to compute the mean reaction time between two walkers undergoing a generalized random walk on a 1d lattice. At each time step, either both walkers diffuse simultaneously with probability p (synchronous event) or one of them...

In many instances, the evolution of physico-chemical systems involves a long slow induction period followed by an abrupt switching to a final stable attractor. In the present paper the properties of fluctuations during this explosive stage of evolution are analyzed. Qualitative arguments,...

The role of dimensionality (Euclidean vs. fractal), spatial extent, boundary effects and system topology on the efficiency of diffusion-reaction processes involving two simultaneously diffusing reactants is analyzed. We present numerically exact values for the mean time to reaction, as gauged by...

The Klein—Gordon equation with cubic nonlinearity (the φ4 equation) is considered and an energy-conserving difference scheme is proposed for its solution. The scheme, extended to finite time increments and spacing, is then used to define a coupled map lattice for which an energy-like...

A system involving all-or-none transitions away from equilibrium is considered. Under the assumption of spatially homogeneous fluctuations an integral representation of the solution of the master equation is derived, which permits an exact evaluation of the variance in the thermodynamic limit. A...

We present a method for the computation of the composition dependence of the viscosity of a dense gas mixture. This method uses the (modified) Enskog theory formula for the viscosity of a dense mixture of rigid-sphere gases, as obtained by Thorne, and assumes that this formula can be applied to...