Relaxation in cooperative systems: Use of mixture virial coefficients

Abstract

The coefficients in power series in the variable time that describe relaxation in a cooperative system can be calculated using a combinatorial approach where one considers how many ways one can introduce a given number of properly defined events in a system. The coefficients obtained in this manner can be related to the equilibrium virial coefficients for a mixture. If one assumes rapid internal equilibration, the relaxation process can be expressed completely in terms of the viral coefficients for a mixture with at most one solute particle, or, in some cases, just the virial coefficients for a single-component system. Thus, equilibrium virial coefficients can give useful information about the time evolution of processes in cooperative systems.