On the zero temperature limit of interacting corpora

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of minimal free energy states of interacting objects with finite degrees of freedom as temperature approaches zero, revealing that limits are supported on the potential's zero-level-sets and are influenced by entropic effects.

Contribution

It provides a characterization of zero-temperature limits for interacting corpora and introduces a selection mechanism involving evanescent entropic contributions.

Findings

Limits are supported on zero-level-sets of the interaction potential.

Evanescent entropic contributions influence the selection of zero-temperature limits.

The framework applies to objects like articulated rods with finite degrees of freedom.

Abstract

We characterize the zero-temperature limits of minimal free energy states for interacting corpora -- that is, for objects with finitely many degrees of freedom, such as articulated rods. These limits are measures supported on zero-level-sets of the interaction potential. We describe a selection mechanism for the limits that is mediated by evanescent entropic contributions.