On the entropy of relaxing deterministic systems

Denis J. Evans, Stephen R. Williams*, Debra J. Searles

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In this paper, we re-visit Gibbs' second (unresolved) paradox, namely the constancy of the fine-grained Gibbs entropy for autonomous Hamiltonian systems. We compare and contrast the different roles played by dissipation and entropy both at equilibrium where dissipation is identically zero and away from equilibrium where entropy cannot be defined and seems unnecessary in any case. Away from equilibrium dissipation is a powerful quantity that can always be defined and that appears as the central argument of numerous exact theorems: the fluctuation, relaxation, and dissipation theorems and the newly derived Clausius inequality.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number194107
    JournalJournal of Chemical Physics
    Volume135
    Issue number19
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 21 Nov 2011

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