Statistical Theory of Open Systems

This monograph gives a systematic presentation of ideas, methods and results of the modern statistical theory of open systems -- systems capable of exchanging matter, energy and information with the surrounding world. The resulting self-organization can lead to more sophisticated and advanced structures. <br/> Central to this work are the statistical criteria of self-organization. The feasibility of a unified description of kinetic, hydrodynamic and diffusion processes in passive and active macroscopic systems without resorting to the methods of perturbation theory is demonstrated. On this basis, a general definition of thermal flux is given in terms of the entropy gradient. Moreover, a consistent method for calculating both kinetic and hydrodynamic fluctuations is proposed. This approach is then used to construct a theory of classical and anomalous Brownian motion in nonlinear media. <br/> This theory makes it possible to treat in an original way the phenomenon of turbulence, and to propose a unified kinetic description of laminar and turbulent motion. The proposed methods are also applied to the statistical description of quantum macroscopic open systems. This provides answers as to whether or not the quantum mechanical description is complete, and whether or not there are hidden parameters in quantum mechanics. The book has no analogy in the existing literature. It is both a monograph and a textbook, and is based largely on the author's original research. <br/> The book will be useful to postgraduate students and researchers in chemistry, physics, mathematics, economics, sociology, and engineering. <br/>