Statistical Physics

Statistical physics is a branch of modern physics that employs probability theory and statistical tools to inquire about the physical properties of systems formed by many degrees of freedom.

Although its origin can be traced back to the last decades of the 1800s, when a young Ludwig Boltzmann, with his kinetic theory of gas, was the first to introduce the existence of monads in a modern key and then to highlight the necessity of employing statistical methods in physics. Statistical physics has undergone rapid development during the 1900s thanks to its successes in solving physical problems with large populations and clarifying various observed phenomena such as phase transition, conduction of heat and electricity, and others which until then lacked a clear explanation within the existent theories.

Today, statistical physics is articulated into two main sections:

• Classical statistical mechanics: basically, developed to give a rational understanding of thermodynamics in terms of microscopic particles and their interactions.
• Quantum statistical mechanics: developed to incorporate quantum peculiarities like indistinguishability and entanglements into the theory as sources of novel statistical effects.

However, in recent decades we have seen a phase of rapid change where the field of applicability of statistical physics is constantly increasing. Although traditional statistical physics focuses on systems with many degrees of freedom, it is now well recognized that it can be successfully applied to an increasing number of physical and physical-like systems that seem to not comply with the thermodynamic limit. In this way, new ideas and concepts permitted a fresh approach to old problems. With new concepts, we mean to look for features that were ignored in previous experiments that lead to new exciting results. For instance, a constantly increasing number of situations are known to violate the predictions of orthodox statistical mechanics. Systems where these emerging features are observed seem to not fulfil the standard ergodic and mixing properties on which the Boltzmann–Gibbs formalism is founded. These systems are characterized by a phase space that self-organizes in a (multi)fractal structure, and are governed by nonlinear dynamics, which establishes a deep relation among the parts where the system is formed. Consequently, the problem regarding the relationship between statistical and dynamical laws becomes highlighted, leading to new fields of research that characterizes the disordered systems, such as deterministic chaos, self-organized criticality, turbulence, and intermittency, to cite a few.

The statistical physics section, broad and interdisciplinary in scope, intends to focus on the challenges of modern statistical physics and its applications to borderline problems while incorporating a high degree of mathematical rigor. Its aim is to provide a collection of high-quality research papers that meet the interest not only of physicists working in this field but also mathematicians and engineers interested in interdisciplinary topics. Generally, papers in pure statistics will not be accepted. Download Section Flyer