Time reversal in nonequilibrium thermodynamics

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2014 Dec;90(6):062131. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.90.062131. Epub 2014 Dec 19.

Abstract

The general equation of nonequilibrium reversible-irreversible coupling (GENERIC) is studied in light of time-reversal transformation. It is shown that Onsager-Casimir reciprocal relations are implied by GENERIC in the near-equilibrium regime. A general structure which gives the reciprocal relations but which is valid also far from equilibrium is identified, and Onsager-Casimir reciprocal relations are generalized to far-from-equilibrium regime in this sense. Moreover, reversibility and irreversibility are carefully discussed and the results are illustrated in Hamiltonian dynamics, classical hydrodynamics, classical irreversible thermodynamics, the quantum master equation, and the Boltzmann equation.