Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Non-Maxwellian Distribution

Apparently I have fallen into the trap of applying the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution to a system that doesn't follow it, due to various constraints that I don't fully understand. That said, the term "ergodic" does not apply to the Polywell concept since it is not in an equilibrium state. Chandler speaks of a quasi-ergodic case where a certain energy barrier prevents every energy state from being reached (p. 162). If every energy state was reached, we would be at equilibrium. According to Chandler, it is possible to apply Non-Boltzmann sampling to get around the problem of lack of ergodicity (p. 169).

- A novice just trying to get started

Source:
Chandler, David; Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics,
Oxford University Press, 1987