Configurational density of states of power-law potentials and the virial theorem in steady states

2025/07/30 by Sergio Davis, Davis, Sergio
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #Theoretical and Computational Physics

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.22624

openalex publication_date 2025/07/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

In this brief note, the configurational density of states of a system of particles interacting via power-law pair potentials is computed exactly. The result is consistent with a constant microcanonical heat capacity. The well-known form of the virial theorem for this class of systems is recovered using only the obtained configurational density of states, and shown to be valid beyond the canonical and microcanonical ensembles, in general steady states.

Related

• Configurational density of states of finite classical systems
• Microcanonical distributions for quantum systems
• Universality of density of states in configuration space
• Thermodynamics and the virial expansion for trapped fluids in arbitrary external potentials
• General, combinatorial formula for the density of states: insights into the energy equipartition principle and the theory of phase transitions