Nonequilibrium theories microscopic

Perhaps the best starting point in a review of the nonequilibrium field, and certainly the work that most directly influenced the present theory, is Onsager s celebrated 1931 paper on the reciprocal relations [10]. This showed that the symmetry of the linear hydrodynamic transport matrix was a consequence of the time reversibility of Hamilton s equations of motion. This is an early example of the overlap between macroscopic thermodynamics and microscopic statistical mechanics. The consequences of time reversibility play an essential role in the present nonequilibrium theory, and in various fluctuation and work theorems to be discussed shortly. 

Extensive development of the generalized nonequilibrium theory has led to mathematical expressions for Hs and Hm for many different models, allowing for various microscopic configurations of the stationary phase and flow profiles for the mobile phase. Details, too lengthy to repeat here, can be found in our main reference [5]. 

From statistical mechanics the second law as a general statement of the inevitable approach to equilibrium in an isolated system appears next to impossible to obtain. There are so many different kinds of systems one might imagine, and each one needs to be treated differently by an extremely complicated nonequilibrium theory. The final equilibrium relations however involving the entropy are straightforward to obtain. This is not done from the microcanonical ensemble, which is virtually impossible to work with. Instead, the system is placed in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath at temperature T and represented by a canonical ensemble. The presence of the heat bath introduces the property of temperature, which is tricky in a microscopic discipline, and relaxes the restriction that all quantum states the system could be in must have the same energy. Fluctuations in energy become possible when a heat bath is connected to the... 

Introduction.—Statistical physics deals with the relation between the macroscopic laws that describe the internal state of a system and the dynamics of the interactions of its microscopic constituents. The derivation of the nonequilibrium macroscopic laws, such as those of hydrodynamics, from the microscopic laws has not been developed as generally as in the equilibrium case (the derivation of thermodynamic relations by equilibrium statistical mechanics). The microscopic analysis of nonequilibrium phenomena, however, has achieved a considerable degree of success for the particular case of dilute gases. In this case, the kinetic theory, or transport theory, allows one to relate the transport of matter or of energy, for example (as in diffusion, or heat flow, respectively), to the mechanics of the molecules that make up the system. 

No attempt will be made here to extend our results beyond the simple lowest-order limiting laws the often ad hoc modifications of these laws to higher concentrations are discussed in many excellent books,8 11 14 but we shall not try to justify them here. As a matter of fact, for equilibrium as well as for nonequilibrium properties, the rigorous extension of the microscopic calculation beyond the first term seems outside the present power of statistical mechanics, because of the rather formidable mathematical difficulties which arise. The main interests of a microscopic theory lie both in the justification qf the assumptions which are involved in the phenomenological approach and in the possibility of extending the mathematical techniques to other problems where a microscopic approach seems necessary in the particular case of the limiting laws, obvious extensions are in the direction of other transport coefficients of electrolytes (viscosity, thermal conductivity, questions involving polyelectrolytes) and of plasma physics, as well as of quantum phenomena where similar effects may be expected (conductivity of metals and semi-... 

The plan of this chapter is the following. Section II gives a summary of the phenomenology of irreversible processes and set up the stage for the results of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics to follow. In Section III, it is explained that time asymmetry is compatible with microreversibility. In Section IV, the concept of Pollicott-Ruelle resonance is presented and shown to break the time-reversal symmetry in the statistical description of the time evolution of nonequilibrium relaxation toward the state of thermodynamic equilibrium. This concept is applied in Section V to the construction of the hydrodynamic modes of diffusion at the microscopic level of description in the phase space of Newton s equations. This framework allows us to derive ab initio entropy production as shown in Section VI. In Section VII, the concept of Pollicott-Ruelle resonance is also used to obtain the different transport coefficients, as well as the rates of various kinetic processes in the framework of the escape-rate theory. The time asymmetry in the dynamical randomness of nonequilibrium systems and the fluctuation theorem for the currents are presented in Section VIII. Conclusions and perspectives in biology are discussed in Section IX. 

A major preoccupation of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics is to justify the existence of the hydrodynamic modes from the microscopic Hamiltonian dynamics. Boltzmann equation is based on approximations valid for dilute fluids such as the Stosszahlansatz. In the context of Boltzmann s theory, the concept of hydrodynamic modes has a limited validity because of this approximation. We may wonder if they can be justified directly from the microscopic dynamics without any approximation. If this were the case, this would be great progress... 

Kinetic Theory. In the kinetic theory and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, fluid properties are associated with averages of pruperlies of microscopic entities. Density, for example, is the average number of molecules per unit volume, times the mass per molecule. While much of the molecular theory in fluid dynamics aims to interpret processes already adequately described by the continuum approach, additional properties and processes are presented. The distribution of molecular velocities (i.e., how many molecules have each particular velocity), time-dependent adjustments of internal molecular motions, and momentum and energy transfer processes at boundaries are examples. 

Ray Kapral came to Toronto from the United States in 1969. His research interests center on theories of rate processes both in systems close to equilibrium, where the goal is the development of a microscopic theory of condensed phase reaction rates,89 and in systems far from chemical equilibrium, where descriptions of the complex spatial and temporal reactive dynamics that these systems exhibit have been developed.90 He and his collaborators have carried out research on the dynamics of phase transitions and critical phenomena, the dynamics of colloidal suspensions, the kinetic theory of chemical reactions in liquids, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of liquids and mode coupling theory, mechanisms for the onset of chaos in nonlinear dynamical systems, the stochastic theory of chemical rate processes, studies of pattern formation in chemically reacting systems, and the development of molecular dynamics simulation methods for activated chemical rate processes. His recent research activities center on the theory of quantum and classical rate processes in the condensed phase91 and in clusters, and studies of chemical waves and patterns in reacting systems at both the macroscopic and mesoscopic levels. 

Up to now, our equations have been continuum-level descriptions of mass flow. As with the other transport properties discussed in this chapter, however, the primary objective here is to examine the microscopic, or atomistic, descriptions, a topic that is now taken up. The transport of matter through a solid is a good example of a phenomenon mediated by point defects. Diffusion is the result of a concentration gradient of solute atoms, vacancies (unoccupied lattice, or solvent atom, sites), or interstitials (atoms residing between lattice sites). An equilibrium concentration of vacancies and interstitials are introduced into a lattice by thermal vibrations, for it is known from the theory of specific heat, atoms in a crystal oscillate around their equilibrium positions. Nonequilibrium concentrations can be introduced by materials processing (e.g. rapid quenching or irradiation treatment). 

We have thus demonstrated that Newton s law of viscosity, an inherently macroscopic result, can be obtained via linear response theory as the nonequilibrium average in the steady state. Furthermore, the distribution function for the steady state average is determined by microscopic equations of motion. Hence, the SLLOD equations, in the linear regime, reduce to the linear phenomenological law proposed by Newton. Moreover, all the quantities that are needed to compute the shear viscosity can be obtained from a molecular dynamics simulation. 

Wolynes, P.G. (1987) Linearized microscopic theories of nonequilibrium solvation. Journal of Chemical Physics, 86, 5133-5136. 

The coefficient of viscosity r plays the same role in the Kramers model as the cross section a in the theory of Curtiss and Prigogine and the transition probabilities W, in the Zwolinski-Eyring treatment. Neither its value nor analytical form can be determined from our present knowledge of intermolecular forces. Itisinterest-5. g to see how this factor enters into all the theories and models of. microscopic nonequilibrium chemical kinetics. Its absence from equilibrium chemical kinetics is, of course, due to the fact that the properties of the equilibrium state are independent of the manner of its establishment. 

Our approach to the study of the departure from equilibrium in chemical reactions and of the "microscopic theory of chemical kinetics is a discrete quantum-mechanical analog of the Kramers-Brownian-motion model. It is most specifically applicable to a study of the energy-level distribution function and of the rate of activation in unimolecular (dissociation Reactions. Our model is an extension of one which we used in a discussion of the relaxation of vibrational nonequilibrium distributions.14 18 20... 

The current frontiers for the subject of non-equilibrium thermodynamics are rich and active. Two areas dominate interest non-linear effects and molecular bioenergetics. The linearization step used in the near equilibrium regime is inappropriate far from equilibrium. Progress with a microscopic kinetic theory [38] for non-linear fluctuation phenomena has been made. Careful experiments [39] confirm this theory. Nonequilibrium long range correlations play an important role in some of the light scattering effects in fluids in far from equilibrium states [38, 39]. 

The treatment of diffusion given in this section is valid only for the analysis of solutions in the limit of inifinite dilution. We return to the question of diffusion in several sections of this book. In Section 9.2 a simple theory of diffusion in electrolyte solutions is discussed. In Section 10.6 the coupling between diffusion and heat conduction is treated in some detail. In section 11.6 a microscopic description of diffusion is given. Finally in Sections 13.5 and 13.6 a detailed treatment of diffusion in binary and ternary solutions of nonelectrolytes and electrolytes is presented. The concentration-dependence of the diffusion coefficient is considered in Section 13.5. These sections are based on the theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and are thus relegated to the chapter on this subject. Particular attention should be given to these sections by any reader interested in the analysis of diffusion. 

It is well-known that implicit solvent models use both discrete and continuum representations of molecular systems to reduce the number of degrees of freedom this philosophy and methodology of implicit solvent models can be extended to more general multiscale formulations. A variety of DG-based multiscale models have been introduced in an earlier paper of Wei [74]. Theory for the differential geometry of surfaces provides a natural means to separate the microscopic solute domain from the macroscopic solvent domain so that appropriate physical laws are applied to applicable domains. This portion of the chapter focuses specifically on the extension of the equilibrium electrostatics models described above to nonequilibrium transport problems that are relevant to a variety of chemical and biological S5 ems, such as molecular motors, ion channels, fuel cells, and nanofluidics, with chemically or biologically relevant behavior that occurs far from equilibrium [74-76]. 

The kinetic theory of gases attempts to explain the macroscopic nonequilibrium properties of gases in terms of the microscopic properties of the individual gas molecules and the forces between them. A central aim of this theory is to provide a microscopic explanation for the fact that a wide variety of gas flows can be described by the Navier-Stokes hydrodynamic equations and to provide expressions for the transport coefficients appearing in these equations, such as the coefficients of shear viscosity and thermal conductivity, in terms of the microscopic prop>erties of the molecules. We devote most of our attention in this article to this problem. 

The next important advance in the theory, and the one that provided the foundation for all later work in this field, was made by Boltzmann, who in 1872 derived an equation for the time rate of change of the distribution function for a dilute gas that is not in equilibrium—the Boltzmann transport equation. (See Boltzmann and also Klein. " ) Boltzmann s equation gives a microscopic description of nonequilibrium processes in the dilute gas, and of the approach of the gas to an equilibrium state. Using the Boltzmann equation. Chapman and Enskog derived the Navier-Stokes equations and obtained expressions for the transport coefficients for a dilute gas of particles that interact with pairwise, short-range forces. Even now, more than 100 years after the derivation of the Boltzmann equation, the kinetic theory of dilute gases is largely a study of special solutions of that equation for various initial and boundary conditions and various compositions of the gas.t... 

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