Kirchhoff's loop law and the maximum entropy production principle

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2004 Nov;70(5 Pt 2):056108. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.70.056108. Epub 2004 Nov 16.

Abstract

In contrast to the standard derivation of Kirchhoff's loop law, which invokes electric potential, we show, for the linear planar electric network in a stationary state at the fixed temperature, that loop law can be derived from the maximum entropy production principle. This means that the currents in network branches are distributed in such a way as to achieve the state of maximum entropy production.