The theory of thermodynamic relativity.

We introduce the theory of thermodynamic relativity, a unified theoretical framework for describing both entropies and velocities, and their respective physical disciplines of thermodynamics and kinematics, which share a surprisingly identical description with relativity. This is the first study to generalize relativity in a thermodynamic context, leading naturally to anisotropic and nonlinear adaptations of relativity; thermodynamic relativity constitutes a new path of generalization, as compared to the "traditional" passage from special to general theory based on curved spacetime. We show that entropy and velocity are characterized by three identical postulates, which provide the basis of a broader framework of relativity: (1) no privileged reference frame with zero value; (2) existence of an invariant and fixed value for all reference frames; and (3) existence of stationarity.

Entropy defect in thermodynamics.

This paper describes the physical foundations of the newly discovered "entropy defect" as a basic concept of thermodynamics. The entropy defect quantifies the change in entropy caused by the order induced in a system through the additional correlations among its constituents when two or more subsystems are assembled. This defect is closely analogous to the mass defect that arises when nuclear particle systems are assembled.

Oblique and rippled heliosphere structures from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer.

Past analysis has shown that the heliosphere structure can be deduced from correlations between long-scale solar wind pressure evolution and energetic neutral atom emissions. However, this required spatial and temporal averaging that smoothed out small or dynamic features of the heliosphere. In late 2014, the solar wind dynamic pressure increased by roughly 50% over a period of 6 months, causing a time and directional-dependent rise in around 2-6 keV energetic neutral atom fluxes from the heliosphere observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer.

Thermodynamic Definitions of Temperature and Kappa and Introduction of the Entropy Defect.

This paper develops explicit and consistent definitions of the independent thermodynamic properties of temperature and the kappa index within the framework of nonextensive statistical mechanics and shows their connection with the formalism of kappa distributions. By defining the "entropy defect" in the composition of a system, we show how the nonextensive entropy of systems with correlations differs from the sum of the entropies of their constituents of these systems. A system is composed extensively when its elementary subsystems are independent, interacting with no correlations; this leads to an extensive system entropy, which is simply the sum of the subsystem entropies.

A double-cusp type electrostatic analyzer for high-cadence solar-wind suprathermal ion observations.

This paper describes a novel electrostatic analyzer concept to measure suprathermal ions, a Double-Cusp Analyzer for SupraThermals (DCAST) that employs a double-shell cusp structure. Due to the necessity of measuring higher energy levels to cover the suprathermal range, existing ion instruments require greater size and mass. Moreover, observations of potentially low-flux suprathermal ions require a long integration time to fully characterize key ion properties in the plasmas (e.

Avalanche photodiode based time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

This study reports on the performance of Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs) as a timing detector for ion Time-of-Flight (TOF) mass spectroscopy. We found that the fast signal carrier speed in a reach-through type APD enables an extremely short timescale response with a mass or energy independent <2 ns rise time for <200 keV ions (1-40 AMU) under proper bias voltage operations. When combined with a microchannel plate to detect start electron signals from an ultra-thin carbon foil, the APD comprises a novel TOF system that successfully operates with a <0.