Generic spectra of large systems

Abstract

Taking a closer look it is not obvious why entropy, as given by its standard microcanonical definition, should be an extensive quantity. It is demonstrated that this may nevertheless be expected if the full system is made up from a multitude of mutually non- or only weakly interacting identical subsystems. In the same limit an exponentially growing density of states within a finite energy range is shown to result. As an example the entropy of an ideal gas is computed on the basis of the presented concepts. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.