Superstatistics: Recent developments and applications

Abstract

We review some recent developments which make use of the concept of `superstatistics', an effective description for nonequilibrium systems with a varying intensive parameter such as the inverse temperature. We describe how the asymptotic decay of stationary probability densities can be determined using a variational principle, and present some new results on the typical behaviour of correlation functions in dynamical superstatistical models. We briefly describe some recent applications of the superstatistics concept in hydrodynamics, astrophysics, and finance.