Abstract

It is shown that there are three characteristic time scales for the establishment of thermodynamic equilibrium: the time for the thermalization of the system; the time for establishing a uniform temperature in the system after contact with the thermostat; and, finally, the time for establishing full ergodicity in the system. The first time is determined by particle collisions (in fluids) or multiphonon processes (in condensed media) and lies in the range from tens of picoseconds (in dense fluids) to microseconds (in pure crystals at low temperatures). The second time is determined by the thermal diffusivity and the size of the system and, for millimeter-sized samples, lasts for seconds. The third time is determined by the particle diffusion rates and can vary from hundreds of picoseconds (in gases and liquids) to astronomical times (in solids at low temperatures). The concept of ergodicity as applied to crystals and glasses is discussed.

中文翻译：

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建立吉布斯分布的时间等级

摘要

结果表明，建立热力学平衡具有三个特征性的时间标度：系统热化的时间；热力学平衡的时间。与恒温器接触后在系统中建立均匀温度的时间；最后，是在系统中建立完全遍历的时间。第一次是由粒子碰撞（在流体中）或多声子过程（在冷凝介质中）确定的，范围是从数十皮秒（在稠密流体中）到微秒（在低温下的纯晶体中）。第二次是由热扩散率和系统的大小决定的，对于毫米大小的样品，持续时间为几秒钟。第三次是由粒子的扩散速率决定的，范围从数百皮秒（在气体和液体中）到天文时间（在低温下的固体中）不等。讨论了适用于晶体和玻璃的遍历性概念。