2000/09/03 by Benjamin P. Vollmayr-Lee, Benjamin Vollmayr-Lee, Erik Luijten
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.63.031108
published as Phys. Rev. E 63, 031108 (2001) · RevTeX, 8 pages, 1 figure
arxiv created 2000/09/03 · openalex publication_date 2001/02/26 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We consider d-dimensional systems with nonintegrable, algebraically decaying pairwise interactions. It is shown that, upon the introduction of periodic boundary conditions and a long-distance cutoff in the interaction range, the bulk thermodynamics can be obtained rigorously by means of a Kac-potential treatment, leading to an exact, mean-field-like theory. This explains various numerical results recently obtained for finite systems in the context of "nonextensive thermodynamics," and in passing exposes a strong regulator dependence not discussed in these studies. Our findings imply that, contrary to some claims, Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics are sufficient for a standard description of this class of nonintegrable interactions.