Steady-state electrical conduction in the periodic Lorentz gas (Q2367958)

The authors present the study of a dynamics that is reversible and deterministic but does not preserve the Liouville measure. The particular case they consider consists of non-equilibrium steady states in the Lorentz gas of periodic scatterers when an external electric field is applied and the particle kinetic energy is kept constant by a thermostat constructed according to the Gauss principle of least action. This is a model problem recently studied numerically by \textit{B. Moran, W. Hoover} and \textit{S. Bestiale} [J. Stat. Phys. 48, 709--726 (1987; Zbl 1084.82563)]. Assuming that the field is sufficiently small, the following results are proved: (i) the forward evolution of initial absolutely continuous distribution determines a unique stationary ergodic measure for which the Pesin entropy formula and Young's expression for the fractal dimension are valid, (ii) each of the following three quantities are equal: (a) the steady state entropy production, (b) the asymptotic decay of the Gibbs entropy for the time- evolved distribution and (c) the negative of the sum of Lyapunov exponents, (iii) the explicit form of the Kawasaki formula for the nonlinear current response and (iv) the linear response theory and Ohm's transport law including the Einstein relation between the conductivity and diffusion matrices are valid.