Entropy production and phase transitions far from equilibrium with emphasis on wet granular matter
= Entropieproduktion und Phasenübergänge fern vom Gleichgewicht mit Betonung feuchter granularer Materie
Beschreibung:
This thesis investigates irreversible dynamics. It is shown analytically that the recent Fluctuation Theorem extends to relativistic dynamics. In the analytic consideration of non-relativistic granular gases with broken time-reversal symmetry we find violations of the Fluctuation Theorem for large fluctuations. This is confirmed by simulations of wet granular matter in driven stationary states. It is shown that the theorem persists to hold for small fluctuations, which explains earlier reports of confirmation in literature as a consequence of their measurement range. The particle interaction in wet granular matter is experimentally shown to be hysteretic with the formation and rupture of capillary bridges. The measured dissipation is quantified by the rupture length and energy of the bridges. For a kinematic description of wet granular matter based on these experimental findings, the Enskog factor is generalized analytically to a set of six factors, which account for the hysteretic interaction in a statistical description ...