Thermodynamics as a nonequilibrium path integral

Abstract

Thermodynamics is a well developed tool to study systems in equilibrium but no such general framework is available for non-equilibrium processes. Only hope for a quantitative description is to fall back upon the equilibrium language as often done in biology. This gap is bridged by the work theorem. By using this theorem we show that the Barkhausen-type non-equilibrium noise in a process, repeated many times, can be combined to construct a special matrix $\mathcal{S}$ whose principal eigenvector provides the equilibrium distribution. For an interacting system $\mathcal{S}$, and hence the equilibrium distribution, can be obtained from the free case without any requirement of equilibrium.

15 pages, 5 eps files. Final version to appear in J Phys. A

References in corpus (3)

• Path ensembles averages in systems driven far-from-equilibrium
• Dynamic transitions and hysteresis
• Comparison of work fluctuation relations

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Scaling of hysteresis loop of interacting polymers under a periodic force
• Thermodynamic relations for DNA phase transitions
• Unzipping DNA by a periodic force: Hysteresis loops, Dynamical order parameter, Correlations and Equilibrium curves
• Efimov like phase of a three stranded DNA (Efimov-DNA) and the renormalization group limit cycle
• Path probability distribution of stochastic motion of non dissipative systems: a classical analog of Feynman factor of path integral
• A Note on Non-equilibrium Work Fluctuations and Equilibrium Free Energies