Do Nonequilibrium Processes Have Features in Common?

TL;DR

This paper explores whether the maximum entropy production principle (MEPP) underpins all nonequilibrium processes and investigates its theoretical foundations and potential universality across physics, chemistry, and biology.

Contribution

The paper critically examines the universality of MEPP in nonequilibrium physics and discusses the possibility of its proof, connecting historical principles to modern nonequilibrium theory.

Findings

MEPP effectively describes diverse nonequilibrium processes

Questions about the fundamental basis and proof of MEPP are addressed

The paper discusses the historical and theoretical context of MEPP

Abstract

The nature takes the easiest and most accessible paths and, hence, processes are accomplished very quickly in a minimum time. In 1662 P. Fermat used this principle to work out the refraction law. This was one of the first known attempts at successful deductive description of a physical phenomenon involving the variational principle. Presently researchers concerned with nonequilibrium processes have turned back to Fermat's idea in the form of the maximum entropy production principle (MEPP). MEPP has proved to be good for understanding and description of diverse nonequilibrium processes in physics, chemistry and biology. This brings up two questions: 1) Can this principle claim to be the basis of all nonequilibrium physics? 2) Is it possible to prove MEPP?