  Experimental results from irradiated-carbon nanostructures can be partially
explained by selective applications of classical damage theories and ad-hoc
thermal models by treating the binary atomic collision cascades and
multi-atomic thermal spikes as energy-dissipating mechanisms. An
information-theoretic model is developed by treating the irradiated
single-walled carbon nanotubes and C60 as entropy-generating dissipative
structures. The model is based on evaluating the experimental probability
distribution functions of the sputtered constituents and components from the
irradiated carbon nanostructures that yield their Shannon entropy or
information. Three information-based functions of fractal dimension, relative
entropy and dynamic emergence are defined and employed to characterize the
profiles of self-organizing, information-generating dissipative structures.
Fractal dimension determines the space-filling character, relative entropy
establishes the distance between any two of the dissipative structures. Dynamic
emergence function provides the profile of the emerging sequences. Results
derived from the existing theories and thermal models are compared with the
information-theoretic dynamic emergence model to comprehensively describe the
nature of the dissipative structures in irradiated carbon nanostructures
without making apriori assumptions about the energy-dissipating mechanisms.
