  The dynamics of free vibrations of a chain of atoms is investigated taking
into account the retardation of interactions. It is shown that all oscillations
of the circuit are damped. The dynamics of forced vibrations of this chain of
atoms is investigated. It is shown that, regardless of the initial conditions,
the system passes into a stationary state of dynamic equilibrium with an
external field, which depends both on the properties of the system and on the
parameters of the external field. A non-statistical dynamic mechanism of the
process of irreversible establishment of the state of thermodynamic equilibrium
in both many-body and few-body systems is proposed.
