Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics from Darwinian Dynamics: a Primer

Abstract

We present here an exploration on on the physical implications of the Darwinian dynamics. We first show that how the nonequilibrium statistical mechanics emerges naturally. We then show that the first three laws of the thermodynamics, the Zeroth Law, the First Law and the Second Law can be followed from the Darwinian dynamics, except the Third Law. The inability to derive the Third Law indicates that the Darwinian dynamics belongs to the "classical" domain. Specifically, the Second Law is proved from the dynamical point of view. Two types of current dynamical equalities are explicitly discussed in the paper: one is based on Feynman-Kac formula and one is a generalization of the Einstein relation. Both are directly accessible to experimental tests. Our demonstration indicates that the Darwinian dynamics is logically a simple and straightforward starting point to get into thermodynamics and is complementary to the conservative dynamics dominated in physics.