Thermostats, chaos and Onsager reciprocity (Q1022368)

The paper gives a brief survey of the author's own long line of research on statistical mechanical features of mechanical systems subject to interaction with finite thermostats. Origins and intricacies of the chaotic hypothesis and of the emergent fluctuation theorem are outlined, together with a number of comments on the mathematical completness of its proof and still opened problems. The Onsager reciprocity and Green-Kubo formulas for infinitesimal deviatons from equilibrium can be considered as consequences of the fluctuation theorem. On the other hand, they can be derived directly from the chaotic hypothesis and time reversal symmetry assumption (to be valid at equilibrium). Therefore mutual relationships between the chaotic hypothesis and the fluctuation theorem deserve a deepened analysis. In particular, the Author demostrates that Green-Kubo formulas and Onsager's reciprocity can be regarded as the version, at zero forcing, of the fluctuation theorem for stationary states. An ambiguity concerning possible alterations of the phase-space contraction rate (here, by changing the phase space metric) is explored.