Speaker: Andreas Dechant (Kyoto Univ.)

Date: Dec.14, 17:00-

Style: zoom

Title: Geometric decomposition of entropy production in out-of-equilibrium systems

Abstract: In general, we can drive a system out of equilibrium in two qualitatively different ways: We can drive the system using a time-dependent protocol; in this case, when we suspend the driving, the system will relax back to an equilibrium state. Alternatively, we can apply non-conservative forces to the system; in this case, even though the system relaxes to a steady state for long times, it remains out of equilibrium because of persistent flows. The non-equilibrium nature of the system can be characterized using entropy production and the different types of driving manifest themselves in a decomposition of the latter into positive “excess” and “housekeeping” parts. In this talk, I will introduce a way of understanding this decomposition in terms of the geometry of orthogonal flows in the system. This geometric picture allows establishing a connection between two different decompositions existing in the literature. The geometric approach also provides variational expressions for the excess and housekeeping entropy, which can be used to compute them independently from trajectory data. Finally, I will show a decomposition of the entropy production into three positive parts characterizing time-dependent driving, non-conservative forces, and the interaction between them.