The Exclusion Process: A paradigm for non-equilibrium behaviour

TL;DR

This paper discusses the asymmetric exclusion process as a key model for understanding non-equilibrium statistical physics, emphasizing large deviation functions as a unifying framework for diverse physical systems.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of large deviation functions and demonstrates their application through exact solutions of the asymmetric exclusion process.

Findings

Large deviation functions unify descriptions of non-equilibrium systems

Exact solutions for the asymmetric exclusion process illustrate key concepts

Large deviation functions play a role similar to thermodynamic potentials in non-equilibrium

Abstract

In these lectures, we shall present some remarkable results that have been obtained for systems far from equilibrium during the last two decades. We shall put a special emphasis on the concept of large deviation functions that provide us with a unified description of many physical situations. These functions are expected to play, for systems far from equilibrium, a role akin to that of the thermodynamic potentials. These concepts will be illustrated by exact solutions of the Asymmetric Exclusion Process, a paradigm for non-equilibrium statistical physics.