Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-1998

Journal Title

Physical Review E

Volume Number

57

Issue Number

6

First Page

6660

Last Page

6666

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevE.57.6660

Version

Publisher PDF: the final published version of the article, with professional formatting and typesetting

Disciplines

Physics

Abstract

In a sealed blackbody cavity with gas, pressure gradients commonly take three forms: (a) statistical fluctuations, (b) transients associated with the system relaxing toward equilibrium, and (c)equilibrium pressure gradients associated with potential gradients (such as with gravity). In this paper, it is shown that in the low-density (collisionless) regime, a fourth type of pressure gradient may arise, this due to steady-state differential thermal desorption of surface species from chemically active surfaces. This gas phase is inherently nonequilibrium in character. Numerical simulations using realistic physical parameters support the possibility of this gas phase and indicate that these novel pressure gradients might be observable in the laboratory; candidate chemical systems are suggested. [S1063-651X(98)07406-6]

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