Microcanonical analysis of a nonequilibrium phase transition

TL;DR

This paper extends microcanonical analysis to nonequilibrium phase transitions by generalizing microcanonical entropy, demonstrated through a one-dimensional asymmetric diffusion process, revealing insights into finite-size nonequilibrium systems.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized microcanonical entropy framework enabling analysis of nonequilibrium phase transitions, expanding the applicability of microcanonical methods beyond equilibrium systems.

Findings

Microcanonical analysis can be applied to nonequilibrium systems.

Explicit form of generalized microcanonical entropy for a diffusion process.

Identification of a nonequilibrium phase transition in a finite-size system.

Abstract

Microcanonical analysis is a powerful method for studying phase transitions of finite-size systems. This method has been used so far only for studying phase transitions of equilibrium systems, which can be described by microcanonical entropy. I show that it is possible to perform microcanonical analysis of a nonequilibrium phase transition, by generalizing the concept of microcanonical entropy. One-dimensional asymmetric diffusion process is studied as an example where such a generalized entropy can be explicitly found, and the microcanonical method is used to analyze a nonequilibrium phase transition of a finite-size system.