A variational principle for mass transport
arXiv:1805.11618 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.235901
Abstract
A variation principle for mass transport in solids is derived that recasts transport coefficients as minima of local thermodynamic average quantities. The result is independent of diffusion mechanism, and applies to amorphous and crystalline systems. This unifies different computational approaches for diffusion, and provides a framework for the creation of new approximation methods with error estimation. It gives a different physical interpretation of the Green function. Finally, the variational principle quantifies the accuracy of competing approaches for a nontrivial diffusion problem.
arXiv comment12 pages, 1 figure, 16 pages supplement
References in corpus (4)
- Monte Carlo with Absorbing Markov Chains: Fast Local Algorithms for Slow Dynamics
- Automatic numerical evaluation of vacancy-mediated transport for arbitrary crystals: Onsager coefficients in the dilute limit using a Green function approach
- Diffusivity and derivatives for interstitial solutes: Activation energy, volume, and elastodiffusion tensors
- Variational calculation of transport coefficients in diffusive lattice gases