Entropy production of a bound nonequilibrium interface

TL;DR

This paper investigates the entropy production in a nonequilibrium wetting model, revealing that bound interfaces produce entropy and exhibit discontinuities at phase transitions, unlike equilibrium cases.

Contribution

It provides an exact analysis of entropy production in a microscopic nonequilibrium wetting model, highlighting novel behaviors at phase transitions.

Findings

Bound interfaces produce entropy in nonequilibrium steady states.

Entropy production can be higher for bound interfaces than free ones.

Discontinuity in the derivative of entropy production at the wetting transition.

Abstract

We study the entropy production of a microscopic model for nonequilibrium wetting. We show that, in contrast to the equilibrium case, a bound interface in a nonequilibrium steady state produces entropy. Interestingly, in some regions of the phase diagram a bound interface produces more entropy than a free interface. Moreover, by solving exactly a four-site system, we find that the first derivative of the entropy production with respect to the control parameter displays a discontinuity at the critical point of the wetting transition.