Time-reversal symmetry relations for currents in quantum and stochastic nonequilibrium systems

Abstract

An overview is given of recent advances in the nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of quantum systems and, especially, of time-reversal symmetry relations that have been discovered in this context. The systems considered are driven out of equilibrium by time-dependent forces or by coupling to large reservoirs of particles and energy. The symmetry relations are established for the exchange of energy and particles between the subsystem and its environment. These results have important consequences. In particular, generalizations of the Kubo formula and the Casimir-Onsager reciprocity relations can be deduced beyond linear response properties. Applications to electron quantum transport in mesoscopic semiconducting circuits are discussed.

Chapter contributed to: R. Klages, W. Just, and C. Jarzynski (Eds.), Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics of Small Systems: Fluctuation Relations and Beyond (Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2012; ISBN 978-3-527-41094-1)

References in corpus (8)

• Dissipation: The phase-space perspective
• Second Law of Thermodynamics with Discrete Quantum Feedback Control
• Second law and Landauer principle far from equilibrium
• Quantum Szilard Engine
• Nonequilibrium Detailed Fluctuation Theorem for Repeated Discrete Feedback
• Extracting work from a single heat bath through feedback
• Thermodynamic Reversibility in Feedback Processes
• Designing optimal discrete-feedback thermodynamic engines

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Effective Action for Relativistic Hydrodynamics: Fluctuations, Dissipation, and Entropy Inflow
• Schwinger-Keldysh formalism II: Thermal equivariant cohomology
• Topological sigma models & dissipative hydrodynamics
• From quantum to classical dynamics: The relativistic $O(N)$ model in the framework of the real-time functional renormalization group
• Two roads to hydrodynamic effective actions: a comparison