Canonical nonequilibrium ensembles and subdynamics

Abstract

A method for constructing a canonical nonequilibrium ensemble for systems in which correlations decay exponentially has recently been proposed by Coveney and Penrose. In this paper, we show that the method is equivalent to the subdynamics formalism, developed by Prigogine and others, when the dimension of the subdynamic kinetic subspace is finite. The comparison between the two approaches helps to clarify the nature of the various operators used in the Brussels formalism. We discuss further the relationship between these two approaches, with particular reference to a simple discrete-time dynamical system, based on the baker's transformation, which we call the baker's urn.