A non-equilibrium theoretical framework for statistical physics with application to turbulent systems and their predictability

Abstract: A new theoretical approach to non-equilibrium statistical systems has recently been proposed by the author, a co-author and others. It is based on a variational principle which is associated with the discrepancy of a path through thermodynamical space to one following Liouvillean evolution. In this contribution the approach is extended in such a way that it can be applied to a wide range of practical non-equilibrium statistical systems such as those arising in turbulence but also to a general class of statistical physics models. The new methodology allows for application to autonomous dynamical systems generalizing the previous work which applied only to Hamiltonian systems. Furthermore it provides a general analysis of near equilibrium conditions which allows for a natural analysis of predictability limits in turbulent systems. Finally it describes a method is described for the numerical calculation of far from equilibrium thermodynamical trajectories.