Dynamically maintained steady-state pressure gradients

Abstract

In a sealed blackbody cavity with gas, pressure gradients commonly take three forms: (a) statistical fluctuations, (b) transients associated with the system relaxing toward equilibrium, and (c) equilibrium pressure gradients associated with potential gradients (such as with gravity). In this paper, it is shown that in the low-density (collisionless) regime, a fourth type of pressure gradient may arise, this due to steady-state differential thermal desorption of surface species from chemically active surfaces. This gas phase is inherently nonequilibrium in character. Numerical simulations using realistic physical parameters support the possibility of this gas phase and indicate that these novel pressure gradients might be observable in the laboratory; candidate chemical systems are suggested.