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On the well-posedness of equations for smoothed phase space distribution functions and irreversibility in classical statistical mechanics

C B Muratov

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We obtain an exact equation for a smoothed phase space distribution function for a system of N non-relativistic particles of unit mass obeying Hamiltonian dynamics. We show that this equation is well posed in only one time direction in the sense of the continuous dependence of the solution on the initial data. We interpret the ill-posedness of this equation in the backward time direction as the manifestation of irreversibility of the observable statistical quantities for systems obeying time-reversible dynamical laws.


PACS

05.20.-y Classical statistical mechanics

02.30.-f Function theory, analysis

MSC

65F22 Ill-posedness, regularization

82C05 Classical dynamic and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general)

Subjects

Mathematical physics

Statistical physics and nonlinear systems

Dates

Issue 22 (8 June 2001)

Received 7 December 2000, in final form 9 April 2001



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