Jürgen Mimkes nsIn existographies, Jürgen Mimkes (1939-) (HFE:26) (SNE:1) [CR:139] or Juergen Mimkes, is a German physicist, metallurgist, solid state thermodynamicist, and physical socio-economics professor, known for publications and work, beginning in 1992, in the fields of sociological thermodynamics and economic thermodynamics, such as his 2000 "Society as a Many Particle System", his 2005 "Chemistry of the Social Bond", and 2007 chapter “A Thermodynamic Formulation of Social Science”, wherein he employs the Lagrangian formulation of free energy to explain social and economic phenomena. [1]

Overview
In circa 1992, Mimkes, as head of the physics department of University of Paderborn, German, assembled the physics professor together for a meeting to see if they could, as a group, come to understand the mechanism of racial killings, related to the Bosnian war, and Nazi youth killing Turks, occurring recently in German. This meeting resulted in the Paderborn Thermodynamics of Physical Socio-Economics research group being established; a circa 2015 faculty page synopsis of which is as follows: [7]

The focus of research
1. Applied Thermodynamics: Physical Socio - Economics

This interdisciplinary work area studied society and economy as a many-body systems. Specifically, the following issue is particularly being investigated:

"Phase diagrams in homogeneous and heterogeneous societies".
Social problems of integration and segregation are described different angle also in physical chemistry under the theme solubility undPhasentrennung. The aim of the research is the transfer of Modellsder regular mixture to society and the economy. The statistical Modellberücksichtigt only interactions that are attractive (sympathy), repellent (antipathy) oderindifferent, it can be applied to matter and companies alike. This leads to the statistics by Lagrange, the equivalent to the thermodynamics of matter.

This statistic describes homogeneous societies the three dependent living standard government forms hierarchical, democratic, globally. They meet in a homogeneous matter determined the three temperature-dependent phases, liquid, gaseous. The characteristics of the society in the various phases correspond to the thermal properties of matter. This can be confirmed by data: Similar to the energy distribution of molecules in gases arises eg in Germany a Boltzmann distribution of the assets of a.. The upheaval in the GDR 1989 - as the French Revolution in 1789, a phase transition of the first order with abrupt change in the social order and deferred costs - analogous to the melting of the matter with Entropiesprung and latent heat of fusion. Integration and segregation (both German and foreign, East and West) are phase transitions of the second order of the heterogeneous (multicultural) society with a continuous structural change as inhomogeneous matter, the mixture of water and wine or the separation of water and oil. This model is already being discussed since antiquity (Empedocles) and was revived in Goethe's Elective Affinities. According to today's model, integration depends essentially on the standard of living. Just as sugar in your tea better dissolves when it is made hot, then let foreign workers integrate better when the economy is growing. Labor and energy are basic concepts of economics as well as thermodynamics. Since the terms mean in both sciences the same, the laws of thermodynamics can be transferred to the economy. They lead to the connection between labor, capital, standard of living and education and are the foundation for any economic activity. Businesses are engines of the economy. The economic cycle corresponds to the Carnot cycle of the engine. Every working person and every company works like a heat pump, it is produced at the lowest possible cost and sold at the highest possible price. The gain is stored in banks and reinvested if needed. This general economic cycle creates and reinforces the tendency towards two-tier society locally and globally, as the return grows disproportionately to the class difference. Operation with too low a yield loses - similar to an old refrigerator with poor efficiency - in value and is discarded on the stock exchange.

In 1995, Mimkes, in his “Binary Alloys as a Model for a Multicultural Society”, argued the following: [2]

“The model of regular solutions, that may be applied to binary alloys (e.g. Au−Pt, Si−Ge) has been compared to binary societies: blacks — non-blacks in the US, catholics — non-catholics, foreigners — German citizen. The excellent agreement of phase diagrams and intermarriage data encourages a calculation of the multicultural society by functions of thermodynamics: Solubility corresponds to integration, miscibility gap to segregation, free enthalpy to happiness and temperature to tolerance of a society. Only a high level of tolerance will integrate ghettos and lead to a peaceful multicultural society.”

In 1996, Mimkes authored a 110-page article on "Politics and Thermodynamics", wherein he outlined some type of political thermodynamics. [3]

In 2002, Mimkes, in his “The Structure of Complex Systems: Thermodynamics, Socio-Economics”, given at German ZiF SocioPhysics conference, talked on the following pioneering points of view: [10]

“The state of large stochastic systems of N objects may be calculated by the Lagrange principle L(N) = T log P(N) + E(N) → maximum ! P is the probability, that is to be maximized under a system condition E, and T is the Lagrange ordering parameter. L is the Lagrange function of the system, that may be far away or close to stability. At equilibrium the Lagrange function is at maximum.

In natural sciences E is given by the chemical bonds and the (negative) Lagrange function corresponds to the free energy, from which all thermodynamic states may be calculated. In social systems the Lagrange principle corresponds to the common benefit. The function E represents the social bonds of the system.

The existence of a quasi-temperature Tin social systems is demonstrated by data for binary societies (Catholics - non Catholics in Germany, black - non-black in USA) and may be interpreted as tolerance of the society and is proportional to the standard of living (GNP per capita). At high standard of living a society will be integrated, at low standard of living a society will be segregated or aggressive.

These results are supported by data from Bosnia and North Ireland. Hierarchy is observed at low standard of living, democracy at high standard of living and the global phase at very high standard of living. The phases transitions correspond to revolutions, DS > O.

Economics: the Lagrange principle corresponds to the common profit of an economic system, E represents the capital, the costs or the prices of a market. The existence of a quasi-temperature T in economic systems is demonstrated by data for the distribution of property in Germany and is again represented by the standard of living (GNP per capita). At low standard of living the economic structure will be in a hierarchic or feudal state, only at a higher standard of living the economy will become capitalistic. Social and economic states are closely related, this may be observed worldwide, but also in smaller socio-economic systems like companies, clubs, families. Work is defined by the send law of thermodynamics, economic production cycles correspond to the Carnot cycle of engines.”

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Mimkes (books)
Left: The 2006 Econophysics and Sociophysics, contains Mimkes' “A Thermodynamic Formulation of Economics” (ch. 1) and “A Thermodynamic Formulation of Social Science” (ch. 10). [5] Right: Mimkes' co-authored 2013 econophysics and physical economics book. [8]
In the 2006 multi-authored book Econophysics and Sociophysics, Mimkes is the lead author with chapters on “A Thermodynamic Formulation of Economics” and “A Thermodynamic Formulation of Social Science”. [5]

In 2010, Mimkes, in his “Stokes Integral of Economic Growth”, on the subject of what he terms econophysics, argued that economic properties may be calculated in physical terms: capital to energy, production to physical work, and GDP per capita to temperature, and production function to entropy. He attempts to show how production, trade, and banking may be compared to motors, heat pumps, and refrigerators and that what he calls the “Carnot process of the first law”, creates two levels in each system: buyer and seller, investor and saver, rich and poor, which, supposedly, have a correlation to “hot and cold in physics”. He concludes with the postulate that efficiency rises in proportion to the income difference between the rich and poor, on the model that heat engine efficiency increases as the temperature difference between the hot and cold bodies increases. [6]

In 2013, Mimkes co-authored Econophysics and Physical Economics, together with physicists Peter Richmond and Stefan Hutzler. [8]

Other
In 2008, Polish psychologist Wouter de Raad, in his “A Dynamic Approach to Multicultural Integration”, cited and discussed Mimkes article as follows: [9]

Raad (2013)

This, of course, is the classic "people are not molecules" objection, which is but unbridgeable gap dualism confusion.

Physical SocioEconomics | Lectures
Mimkes, since engaging in 1992 with the subject of the statistics, physics, thermodynamics, and chemistry of social and economic systems, has given following lectures on physical socio-economics systems: [3]

DPG Spring Meeting Regensburg, 2010
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, Dr. A. Scharnhorst, 2009
Department of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University Beijing, Dr. D. Wang 2009
International Conference Physics of Competition and Conflicts Rome 2009
International Conference on Complexity Shanghai 2009
European conference Competition and Conflicts Paderborn, 2009
Physics Department University of the Bundeswehr Munich ,. Dr. J. Becker, 2008
Physics Department University of Paderborn, Prof. Schmidt, April 2008
German Physical Society Spring meeting, Berlin, 2008
Technical Univ. ITBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Prof. R. Martinez November 2007
International Conference on Economics, Ancona, Italy, 2007
International Conference Physics of Risk COST P10, Palermo, Italy, 2007
Summer School Univ. of Economics, Sibiu (Sibiu), Romania, Prof. Costea, 2007
International Workshop on Econophysics-Sociophysics, Kolkata, India, 2007
Physics Department University of Maryland, Prof. Michael Fisher, October 2006
International Conference "physics of risk", Vilnius, Lithuania, 2006
Summer School Univ. of Economics Bucharest, Sinaia, Romania, Prof. Costea, 2006
American Physical Society Spring meeting, Baltimore, 2006
German Physical Society Spring meeting, Dresden, 2006
Summer School, Univ. of Economics Bucharest, Sibiu, Romania, Prof. C. Costea, 2006
Summer School Univ. of Economics Bucharest, Navodari, Romania, Prof. Costea, 2005
International Workshop on Econophysics-Sociophysics, Kolkata, India, 2005
German Physical Society Spring meeting, Berlin, 2005
Kloster Loccum, seminar on economy and politics, Andreas Dally, 2004
International Economics Conference WEHIA, Tokyo, 2004
Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Prof. Dr. Witt, 2004
Department of Economics of the University of Kiel, Prof. Dr. Lux, 2004
International Conference Physics of Risk COST P10, Mallorca, Spain, 2004
International Conference Physics of Risk COST P10, Crete, Greece, 2004
International Conference New Economic Window, Salerno, Italy, 2004
International Conference Physics of Risk COST P10, Nyborg, Denmark, 2004
Conference on SocioPhysics, Germany, 2002

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Education
Mimkes completed his BS in physics in 1963 at the University of Gottingen, his MS in physics in 1964 at the Free University of Berlin, and PhD at the in 1967 at the Technical University of Berlin. Since then, he taught at various universities in the US and in Berlin. Since 1977, Mimkes has been a professor at the physics department at the University of Paderborn, Germany, focused on the fields of solid state physics and thermodynamics. Since 1992, he has been also dealing with the subject of the statistics and thermodynamics of social and economic systems. In 2010, Mimkes was a professor of, in his own words, and “physical socio-economics”, and solid state thermodynamics. [7]

Quotes | By
The following are quotes by Mimkes:

“The system – solid or social – will be stable only if the negative free energy (-dG) is at a maximum. This idea goes back to Empedocles (450BC), who in his On Nature explains that solubility of wine in water similar to love of relatives, and Goethe (1809) who in his Elective Affinities demonstrated that love and marriage depend on the physico-chemical laws of society.”
— Jurgen Mimkes (2012), Chemistry of the Social Bond (Ѻ)
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“People are not spins. People are elements or agents with ‘attractions’ or ‘dis-attractions’. So what people can do is they can attract each other, if the [free] energy is positive [-dG > 0] or they can dis-attract (repel) each other if the [free] energy is negative [-dG < 0], and they can be indifferent if the interaction energy is zero [dG ≈ 0].
— Jurgen Mimkes (2016), “On Goethe’s affinities vs modern free energies”; Interview by Libb Thims at the BPE 2016 conference, Washington DC
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“My background is physics and solid-state thermodynamics. My present field is ‘physical economics’, especially macro and microeconomics, and finance. My time invested in this interdisciplinary work is 100%. I have trouble calling my field ‘econophysics’, as this only covers finance.”
— Jurgen Mimkes (2019), “Answer to Question #1”; cited by Kishore Dash (2019) in The Story of Econophysics (pg. 182)
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Jurgen Mimkes (lecturing)
Mimkes lecturing, at the 2005 Navodari Econophysics Conference, on the thermodynamic applications in economics. [4]
References
1. (a) Muller, Ingo. (2007). A History of Thermodynamics - the Doctrine of Energy and Entropy (pgs. 163-64). New York: Springer.
(b) Mimkes' Research: Applied Thermodynamics - Physical-Socio Economics, Paderborn University, Department of Physics.
2. Mimkes, Jurgen. (1995). “Binary Alloys as a Model for a Multicultural Society” (abs), Journal of Thermal Analysis, 43:521-37.
3. Publications (Mimkes) – Google Translation (German-to-English).
4. Photos of Mimkes - at the 2005 Navodari Econophysic Conference.
5. (a) Chakrabarti, Bikas K. Chakraborti, Anirban, and Chatterjee, Arnab. (2006). Econophysics and Sociophysics: Trends and Perspectives, (“A Thermodynamic Formulation of Economics” (PDF) [ch. 1] and “A Thermodynamic Formulation of Social Science” [ch. 10]). Wiley-VCH.
(b) Mimkes, Jurgen. (2006). “A Thermodynamic Formulation of Social Science”, In: Econophysics & Sociophysics: Trends & Perspectives (pgs. 277 – 308). Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Anirban Chakraborti, Arnab Chatterjee (Eds.). WILEY-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, Germany.
6. Mimkes, Jurgen. (2010). “Stokes Integral of Economic Growth: Calculus and Solow Model” (abstract), Physica A, 389: 1665-76.
7. Jurgen Mimkes (faculty) (German → English) – University of Paderborn.
8. Richmond, Peter, Mimkes, Jurgen and Hutzler, Stefan. (2013). Econophysics and Physical Economics. Oxford University Press.
9. Raad, Wouter E. de. (2103). “A Dynamic Approach to Multicultural Integration”, in: Complex Human Dynamics: From Mind to Societies (editors: Andrzej Nowak, Katarzyna Winkowska-Nowak, David Brée) (§8:131-; quote, pg. 134). Springer.
10. Mimkes, Jurgen. (2002). “The Structure of Complex Systems: Thermodynamics, Socio-Economics”, SocioPhysics Conference (abs) (toc) (pdf), Center for Interdisciplinary Research (Zentrum fiir interdisziplinare Forschung) (ZIF), Bielefeld Germany, Jun 6-9.

Further reading
● Mimkes, Jurgen. (1997). “Society as a Many Particle System”, Conference report, Bretsnajder Seminar, Krakow.
● Mimkes, Jurgen. (1999). “Spatial mobility and migration flows in Germany 1995 - Models for statistical migration, marriage and death data for materials” (“Raumliche Mobilitat und Wanderungsstr6me in Deutschland 1995 - Modelle zu statistischen Wanderungs-, Heirats- und Sterbedaten Materialien zur”), Bev6lkerungs­wissenschaft, 94:61- 83.
● Mimkes, Jurgen. (1999). “Integration and segregation by denomination and citizenship in Germany and Switzerland” (“Integration und Segregation nach Konfession und Staatsangeh6rigkeit in Deutschland und der Schweiz”), Materialien zur Bev6lkerungswissenschaft 90:88 -110.
● Mimkes, Jürgen. (2000). “Society as a many-particle System” (abs), Journal Thermal Analysis, 60(3):1055-69.
● Mimkes, Jurgen. (c.2002). “Chemistry of the Social Bond” (“Chemie der sozialen Bindungen”) (pdf) (Eng), University of Paderborn.
● Mimkes, Jürgen. (2006). “Concepts of Thermodynamics in Economic Growth” (book chapter) in Lecture Notes in Economic and Mathematical System. Springer.
● Mimkes, Jürgen and Aruka, Y. (2005). “Carnot Process of Wealth Distribution” (abs), in Econophysics of Wealth Distributions (edited by A. Chatterjee, S. Yarlagadda, B. Chakrabarti) (pgs. 70-) (thermodynamics, 7+ pgs). Springer.
● Mimkes, Jurgen. (2017). “Thermodynamics and Economics” (abs), Thermal Physics and Thermal Analysis, Volume 11 of the series Hot Topics in Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (pgs. 495-519), Mar 25.

External links
● Jurgen Mimkes (articles) – Springer.com.

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