ON INFORMATIONAL STATISTICAL THERMODYNAMICS

We describe a microscopic approach to phenomenological irreversible thermodynamics based on the nonequilibrium statistical operator method. Very brief descriptions of Classical Irreversible Thermodynamics and Extended Irreversible Thermodynamics are presented, pointing out to their scope and limitations. The construction of a unifying approach to the Nonequilibrium Statistical Operator Method in the context of Jaynes' Predictive Statistical Mechanics is also summarized. This is based on a variational principle, namely Jaynes' maximization of the information statistical entropy, incorporating nonlocality in space and time as well as an ad hoc criterion for irreversibility. This statistical-mechanic formalism is shown to provide foundations to a thermodynamic theory, to be referred to as Informational Statistical Thermodynamics, that encompasses and extends phenomenological approaches.