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We study the influence of the interaction range on the out-of-equilibrium behavior of both isolated and thermostated systems. In the case of short-range (extensive) systems, we investigate coarsening dynamics. There we find the existence of a short-time regime where the laws relating the rate of growth of domains' size with the interaction range are different in isolated and thermostated systems. In the case of long-range (non-extensive) systems, we focus on the "Quasi-stationary states" in which these systems are trapped before reaching the thermodynamic equilibrium. There, we demonstrate that one can in principle measure negative specific heat both in the case of isolated and thermostated systems. This is a surprising result since for classical systems at equilibrium negative specific heat can be found just in isolated systems, while it is generally recognized that a positive specific heat should always be measured in systems in contact with a thermal bath.

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Fabio Staniscia, Sincrotrone Trieste and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Trieste
Conference Room Theoretical Physics
Contact: not specified