Fact-checking Ziegler's maximum entropy production principle beyond the linear regime and towards steady states (Q280441)

Summary: We challenge claims that the principle of maximum entropy production produces physical phenomenological relations between conjugate currents and forces, even beyond the linear regime, and that currents in networks arrange themselves to maximize entropy production as the system approaches the steady state. In particular: (1) we show that Ziegler's principle of thermodynamic orthogonality [\textit{H. Ziegler}, An introduction to thermomechanics. Amsterdam-New York-Oxford: North-Holland (1983; Zbl 0531.73080)] leads to stringent reciprocal relations for higher order response coefficients, and in the framework of stochastic thermodynamics, we exhibit a simple explicit model that does not satisfy them; (2) on a network, enforcing Kirchhoff's current law, we show that maximization of the entropy production prescribes reciprocal relations between coarse-grained observables, but is not responsible for the onset of the steady state, which is, rather, due to the minimum entropy production principle.