Generalized kinetic theory of coarse-grained systems. I. Partial equilibrium and Markov approximations

The general kinetic theory of coarse-grained systems is presented in the abstract formalism of communication theory developed by Shannon and Weaver, Khinchin and Kolmogorov. The martingale theory shows that, under reasonable, general hypotheses, coarse-grained systems can be approximated by generalized Markov systems. For mixing systems, the Kolmogorov entropy production can be defined for nonstationary processes as Kolmogorov defined it for stationary processes.