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Updated: Apr 28, 2026

Modeling the Size Spectrum for Macroinvertebrates and Fishes in Stream Ecosystems
Published on: July 30, 2019
Communication: system-size scaling of Boltzmann and alternate Gibbs entropies
Jose M G Vilar1, J Miguel Rubi2
1Biophysics Unit (CSIC-UPV/EHU) and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of the Basque Country, P.O. Box 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain.
Abstract:
It has recurrently been proposed that the Boltzmann textbook definition of entropy S(E) = k ln Ω(E) in terms of the number of microstates Ω(E) with energy E should be replaced by the expression S(G)(E) = k ln Σ(E' < E)Ω(E') examined by Gibbs. Here, we show that SG either is equivalent to S in the macroscopic limit or becomes independent of the energy exponentially fast as the system size increases. The resulting exponential scaling makes the realistic use of SG unfeasible and leads in general to temperatures that are inconsistent with the notions of hot and cold.
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