Thermostats, chaos and Onsager reciprocity

chaotic hypothesis entropy production finite thermostats fluctuation theorem Green-Kubo formulas large deviations nonequilibrium statistical mechanics Onsager reciprocity phase-space contraction

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Ergodicity, mixing, rates of mixing (37A25) Ergodic theorems, spectral theory, Markov operators (37A30) Dynamical aspects of statistical mechanics (37A60) Large deviations (60F10) Classical dynamic and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C05) Irreversible thermodynamics, including Onsager-Machlup theory (82C35)

Abstract: Finite thermostats are studied in the context of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Entropy production rate has been identified with the mechanical quantity expressed by the phase space contraction rate and the currents have been linked to its derivatives with respect to the parameters measuring the forcing intensities. In some instances Green-Kubo formulae, hence Onsager reciprocity, have been related to the fluctuation theorem. However, mainly when dissipation takes place at the boundary (as in gases or liquids in contact with thermostats), phase space contraction may be independent on some of the forcing parameters or, even in absence of forcing, phase space contraction may not vanish: then the relation with the fluctuation theorem does not seem to apply. On the other hand phase space contraction can be altered by changing the metric on phase space: here this ambiguity is discussed and employed to show that the relation between the fluctuation theorem and Green-Kubo formulae can be extended and is, by far, more general.

Review text

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.

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