Shin-ichi Sasa

Steady-State Thermodynamics of Langevin Systems

We study Langevin dynamics describing nonequilibirum steady states. Employing the phenomenological framework of steady-state thermodynamics constructed by Oono and Paniconi [Prog. Theor. Phys. Suppl. 130, 29 (1998)], we find that the extended form of the second law which they proposed holds for transitions between steady states and that the Shannon entropy difference is related to the excess heat produced in an infinitely slow operation. A generalized version of the Jarzynski work relation plays an important role in our theory.

Equality connecting energy dissipation with a violation of the fluctuation-response relation

In systems driven away from equilibrium, the velocity correlation function and the linear-response function to a small perturbation force do not satisfy the fluctuation-response relation (FRR) due to the lack of detailed balance in contrast to equilibrium systems. In this Letter, an equality between an extent of the FRR violation and the rate of energy dissipation is proved for Langevin systems under nonequilibrium conditions. This equality enables us to calculate the rate of energy dissipation by quantifying the extent of the FRR violation, which can be measured experimentally.

Complementarity Relation for Irreversible Process Derived from Stochastic Energetics

When the process of a system in contact with a heat bath is described by the classical Langevin equation, use of the method of stochastic energetics [K. Sekimoto: J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 66 (1997) 1234] enables us to derive the form of Helmholtz free energy and the dissipation function of the system. We are able to prove that the irreversible heat Q irr and the time lapse Δ t of an isothermal process obey the complementarity relation, Q irr Δ t ≥ k B T S min , where S min depends on the initial and the final values of the control parameters, but does not depend on the pathway between these values.

Steady-state thermodynamics for heat conduction: microscopic derivation.

Starting from microscopic mechanics, we derive thermodynamic relations for heat conducting nonequilibrium steady states. The extended Clausius relation enables one to experimentally determine nonequilibrium entropy to the second order in the heat current. The associated Shannon-like microscopic expression of the entropy is suggestive. When the heat current is fixed, the extended Gibbs relation provides a unified treatment of thermodynamic forces in the linear nonequilibrium regime.

Stochastic energetics of non-uniform temperature systems

We propose an energetic interpretation of stochastic processes described by Langevin equations with non-uniform temperature. In order to avoid Ito–Stratonovich dilemma, we start with a Kramers equation, and derive a Fokker–Planck equation by the renormalization group method. We give a proper definition of heat for the system. Based on our formulations, we analyze two examples, the Thomson effect and a Brownian motor. The latter realizes the Carnot efficiency.

Pattern Selection of Cracks in Directionally Drying Fracture

We study pattern selection of cracks in directionally drying fractures by analyzing the experimental systems recently devised by C. Allain and L. Limat [Phys. Rev. Lett. 74 (1995) 2981]. Proposing a simple picture of crack formation, we clarify the mechanism of how cracks become regularly arrayed and find that the interval between neighboring cracks is proportional to the 2/3 power of the cell thickness. This result explains well the experimental data of Allain and Limat.

Energy dissipation and violation of the fluctuation-response relation in nonequilibrium Langevin systems

The fluctuation-response relation is a fundamental relation that is applicable to systems near equilibrium. On the other hand, when a system is driven far from equilibrium, this relation is violated in general because the detailed-balance condition is not satisfied in nonequilibrium systems. Even in this case, it has been found that for a class of Langevin equations, there exists an equality between the extent of violation of the fluctuation-response relation in the nonequilibrium steady state and the rate of energy dissipation from the system into the environment [T. Harada and S.-i. Sasa, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 130602 (2005)]. Since this equality involves only experimentally measurable quantities, it serves as a proposition to determine experimentally whether the system can be described by a Langevin equation. Furthermore, the contribution of each degree of freedom to the rate of energy dissipation can be determined based on this equality. In this paper, we present a comprehensive description on this equality, and provide a detailed derivation for various types of models including many-body systems, Brownian motor models, time-dependent systems, and systems with multiple heat reservoirs.

Representation of Nonequilibrium Steady States in Large Mechanical Systems

Recently a novel concise representation of the probability distribution of heat conducting nonequilibrium steady states was derived. The representation is valid to the second order in the “degree of nonequilibrium”, and has a very suggestive form where the effective Hamiltonian is determined by the excess entropy production. Here we extend the representation to a wide class of nonequilibrium steady states realized in classical mechanical systems where baths (reservoirs) are also defined in terms of deterministic mechanics. The present extension covers such nonequilibrium steady states with a heat conduction, with particle flow (maintained either by external field or by particle reservoirs), and under an oscillating external field. We also simplify the derivation and discuss the corresponding representation to the full order.

Entropy and Nonlinear Nonequilibrium Thermodynamic Relation for Heat Conducting Steady States

Among various possible routes to extend entropy and thermodynamics to nonequilibrium steady states (NESS), we take the one which is guided by operational thermodynamics and the Clausius relation. In our previous study, we derived the extended Clausius relation for NESS, where the heat in the original relation is replaced by its “renormalized” counterpart called the excess heat, and the Gibbs-Shannon expression for the entropy by a new symmetrized Gibbs-Shannon-like expression. Here we concentrate on Markov processes describing heat conducting systems, and develop a new method for deriving thermodynamic relations. We first present a new simpler derivation of the extended Clausius relation, and clarify its close relation with the linear response theory. We then derive a new improved extended Clausius relation with a “nonlinear nonequilibrium” contribution which is written as a correlation between work and heat. We argue that the “nonlinear nonequilibrium” contribution is unavoidable, and is determined uniquely once we accept the (very natural) definition of the excess heat. Moreover it turns out that to operationally determine the difference in the nonequilibrium entropy to the second order in the temperature difference, one may only use the previous Clausius relation without a nonlinear term or must use the new relation, depending on the operation (i.e., the path in the parameter space). This peculiar “twist” may be a clue to a better understanding of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of NESS.

Thermodynamic Irreversibility from High-Dimensional Hamiltonian Chaos

This paper discusses the thermodynamic irreversibility realized in high-dimensional Hamiltonian systems with a time-dependent parameter. A new quantity, the irreversible information loss, is defined from the Lyapunov analysis so as to characterize the thermodynamic irreversibility. It is proved that this new quantity satisfies an inequality associated with the second law of thermodynamics. Based on the assumption that these systems possess the mixing property and certain large deviation properties in the thermodynamic limit, it is argued reasonably that the most probable value of the irreversible information loss is equal to the change of the Boltzmann entropy in statistical mechanics, and that it is always a non-negative value. The consistency of our argument is confirmed by numerical experiments with the aid of the definition of a quantity we refer to as the excess information loss.