arXiv subjects

Christian Maes

Publications and source records attributed to Christian Maes.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

On a response formula and its interpretation

We present a physically inspired generalization of equilibrium response formulae, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, to Markov jump processes possibly describing interacting particle systems out-of-equilibrium. Here, the time-dependent perturbation adding a potential V with small amplitude h(t) changes the rates W(x,y) for the transition x --> y into W_t(x,y) = W(x,y) exp {h(t)[bV(y)-aV(x)]} as first considered by Diezemann; a,b are constants. We observe that the linear response relation shows a reciprocity symmetry in the nonequilibrium stationary regime and we interpret the connection with dynamical fluctuation theory.

math-ph↗

arXiv2009

Dynamical fluctuations for semi-Markov processes

We develop an Onsager-Machlup-type theory for nonequilibrium semi-Markov processes. Our main result is an exact large time asymptotics for the joint probability of the occupation times and the currents in the system, establishing some generic large deviation structures. We discuss in detail how the nonequilibrium driving and the non-exponential waiting time distribution influence the occupation-current statistics. The violation of the Markov condition is reflected in the emergence of a new type of nonlocality in the fluctuations. Explicit solutions are obtained for some examples of driven random walks on the ring.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2009

Fluctuations and response of nonequilibrium states

A generalized fluctuation-response relation is found for thermal systems driven out of equilibrium. Its derivation is independent of many details of the dynamics, which is only required to be first-order. The result gives a correction to the equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation theorem, in terms of the correlation between observable and excess in dynamical activity caused by the perturbation. Previous approaches to this problem are recovered and extended in a unifying scheme.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2009

On the nonequilibrium relation between potential and stationary distribution for driven diffusion

We investigate the relation between an applied potential and the corresponding stationary state occupation for nonequilibrium and overdamped diffusion processes. This relation typically becomes long ranged resulting in global changes for the relative density when the potential is locally perturbed, and inversely, we find that the potential needs to be wholly rearranged for the purpose of creating a locally changed density. The direct question, determining the density as a function of the potential, comes under the response theory out of equilibrium. The inverse problem of determining the potential that produces a given stationary distribution naturally arises in the study of dynamical fluctuations. This link to the fluctuation theory results in a variational characterization of the stationary density upon a given potential and vice versa.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Exact computation of current cumulants in small Markovian systems

We describe an algorithm computing the exact value of the mean current, its variance, and higher order cumulants for stochastic driven systems. The method uses a Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation expansion of the generating function of the current, and can be extended to compute covariances of multiple currents. As an example of application of the method, we give numerical evidence for a simple relation [Eq.(5)] between the second and the fourth cumulants of the current in a symmetric exclusion process.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Computation of current cumulants for small nonequilibrium systems

We analyze a systematic algorithm for the exact computation of the current cumulants in stochastic nonequilibrium systems, recently discussed in the framework of full counting statistics for mesoscopic systems. This method is based on identifying the current cumulants from a Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation expansion for the generating function. Here it is derived from a simple path-distribution identity and extended to the joint statistics of multiple currents. For a possible thermodynamical interpretation, we compare this approach to a generalized Onsager-Machlup formalism. We present calculations for a boundary driven Kawasaki dynamics on a one-dimensional chain, both for attractive and repulsive particle interactions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Fluctuations of Quantum Currents and Unravelings of Master Equations

The very notion of a current fluctuation is problematic in the quantum context. We study that problem in the context of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, both in a microscopic setup and in a Markovian model. Our answer is based on a rigorous result that relates the weak coupling limit of fluctuations of reservoir observables under a global unitary evolution with the statistics of the so-called quantum trajectories. These quantum trajectories are frequently considered in the context of quantum optics, but they remain useful for more general nonequilibrium systems. In contrast with the approaches found in the literature, we do not assume that the system is continuously monitored. Instead, our starting point is a relatively realistic unitary dynamics of the full system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Steady state statistics of driven diffusions

We consider overdamped diffusion processes driven out of thermal equilibrium and we analyze their dynamical steady fluctuations. We discuss the thermodynamic interpretation of the joint fluctuations of occupation times and currents; they incorporate respectively the time-symmetric and the time-antisymmetric sector of the fluctuations. We highlight the canonical structure of the joint fluctuations. The novel concept of traffic complements the entropy production for the study of the occupation statistics. We explain how the occupation and current fluctuations get mutually coupled out of equilibrium. Their decoupling close-to-equilibrium explains the validity of entropy production principles.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

On and beyond entropy production: the case of Markov jump processes

How is it that entropy derivatives almost in their own are characterizing the state of a system close to equilibrium, and what happens further away from it? We explain within the framework of Markov jump processes why fluctuation theory can be based on considerations involving entropy production alone when perturbing around the detailed balance condition. Variational principles such as that of minimum entropy production are understood in that way. Yet, further away from equilibrium, dynamical fluctuations reveal a structure where the time-symmetric sector crucially enters. The fluctuations of densities and currents get coupled and a time-symmetric notion of dynamical activity becomes the counterpart and equal player to the entropy production. The results are summarized in an extended Onsager-Machlup Lagrangian, which in its quadratic approximation is expected to be quite general in governing the small fluctuations of nonequilibrium systems whose macroscopic behavior can be written in terms of a Master equation autonomously describing the time-dependence of densities and currents.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Canonical structure of dynamical fluctuations in mesoscopic nonequilibrium steady states

We give the explicit structure of the functional governing the dynamical density and current fluctuations for a mesoscopic system in a nonequilibrium steady state. Its canonical form determines a generalised Onsager-Machlup theory. We assume that the system is described as a Markov jump process satisfying a local detailed balance condition such as typical for stochastic lattice gases and for chemical networks. We identify the entropy current and the traffic between the mesoscopic states as extra terms in the fluctuation functional with respect to the equilibrium dynamics. The density and current fluctuations are coupled in general, except close to equilibrium where their decoupling explains the validity of entropy production principles.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Symmetries of the ratchet current

Recent advances in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics shed new light on the ratchet effect. The ratchet motion can thus be understood in terms of symmetry (breaking) considerations. We introduce an additional symmetry operation besides time-reversal, that effectively reverses the nonequilibrium driving. That operation of field-reversal combined with time-reversal decomposes the nonequilibrium action so to clarify under what circumstances the ratchet current is a second order effect around equilibrium, what is the direction of the ratchet current and what are possibly the symmetries in its fluctuations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

On the validity of entropy production principles for linear electrical circuits

We discuss the validity of close-to-equilibrium entropy production principles in the context of linear electrical circuits. Both the minimum and the maximum entropy production principle are understood within dynamical fluctuation theory. The starting point are Langevin equations obtained by combining Kirchoff's laws with a Johnson-Nyquist noise at each dissipative element in the circuit. The main observation is that the fluctuation functional for time averages, that can be read off from the path-space action, is in first order around equilibrium given by an entropy production rate. That allows to understand beyond the schemes of irreversible thermodynamics (1) the validity of the least dissipation, the minimum entropy production, and the maximum entropy production principles close to equilibrium; (2) the role of the observables' parity under time-reversal and, in particular, the origin of Landauer's counterexample (1975) from the fact that the fluctuating observable there is odd under time-reversal; (3) the critical remark of Jaynes (1980) concerning the apparent inappropriateness of entropy production principles in temperature-inhomogeneous circuits.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Steady state fluctuations of the dissipated heat for a quantum stochastic model

We introduce a quantum stochastic dynamics for heat conduction. A multi-level subsystem is coupled to reservoirs at different temperatures. Energy quanta are detected in the reservoirs allowing the study of steady state fluctuations of the entropy dissipation. Our main result states a symmetry in its large deviation rate function.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Time-symmetric fluctuations in nonequilibrium systems

For nonequilibrium steady states, we identify observables whose fluctuations satisfy a general symmetry and for which a new reciprocity relation can be shown. Unlike the situation in recently discussed fluctuation theorems, these observables are time-reversal symmetric. That is essential for exploiting the fluctuation symmetry beyond linear response theory. Besides time-reversal, a crucial role is played by the reversal of the driving fields, that further resolves the space-time action. In particular, the time-symmetric part in the space-time action determines second order effects of the nonequilibrium driving.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Realistic time correlations in sandpiles

A ``sandpile'' cellular automaton achieves complex temporal correlations, like a $1/f$ spectrum, if the position where it is perturbed diffuses slowly rather than changing completely at random, showing that the spatial correlations of the driving are deeply related to the intermittent activity. Hence, recent arguments excluding the relevance of self-organized criticality in seismicity and in other contexts are inaccurate. As a toy model of single fault evolution, and despite of its simplicity, our automaton uniquely reproduces the scaling form of the broad distributions of waiting times between earthquakes.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Fluctuation symmetries for work and heat

We consider a particle dragged through a medium at constant temperature as described by a Langevin equation with a time-dependent potential. The time-dependence is specified by an external protocol. We give conditions on potential and protocol under which the dissipative work satisfies an exact symmetry in its fluctuations for all times. We also present counter examples to that exact fluctuation symmetry when our conditions are not satisfied. Finally, we consider the dissipated heat which differs from the work by a temporal boundary term. We explain when and why there can be a correction to the standard fluctuation theorem due to the unboundedness of that temporal boundary. However, the corrected fluctuation symmetry has again a general validity.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Enstrophy dissipation in two-dimensional turbulence

Insight into the problem of two-dimensional turbulence can be obtained by an analogy with a heat conduction network. It allows the identification of an entropy function associated to the enstrophy dissipation and that fluctuates around a positive (mean) value. While the corresponding enstrophy network is highly nonlocal, the direction of the enstrophy current follows from the Second Law of Thermodynamics. An essential parameter is the ratio $T_k = γ_k /(νk^2)$ of the intensity of driving $γ_k>0$ as a function of wavenumber $k$, to the dissipation strength $νk^2$, where $ν$ is the viscosity. The enstrophy current flows from higher to lower values of $T_k$, similar to a heat current from higher to lower temperature. Our probabilistic analysis of the enstrophy dissipation and the analogy with heat conduction thus complements and visualizes the more traditional spectral arguments for the direct enstrophy cascade. We also show a fluctuation symmetry in the distribution of the total entropy production which relates the probabilities of direct and inverse enstrophy cascades.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Second law of thermodynamics for macroscopic mechanics coupled to thermodynamic degrees of freedom

Based only on classical Hamiltonian dynamics, we prove the maximum work principle in a system where macroscopic dynamical degrees of freedom are intrinsically coupled to microscopic degrees of freedom. Unlike recent identities between irreversible work and free energy, such as in the Jarzynski relation, the macroscopic dynamics is not governed by an external action but undergoes the back reaction of the microscopic degrees of freedom. Our theorems cover such physical situations as impact between macroscopic bodies, thermodynamic machines, and molecular motors.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗