Nonequilibrium steady-state Kubo formula: equality of transport coefficients

TL;DR

This paper proves that for diffusive unitary systems, the nonequilibrium steady-state transport coefficients derived from a Kubo-like formula are exactly equal to those obtained from the equilibrium Green-Kubo formula, with finite-size corrections analyzed.

Contribution

It introduces a nonequilibrium Kubo-like expression for diffusion constants and rigorously proves their equivalence to Green-Kubo values in diffusive systems, supported by explicit many-body model calculations.

Findings

Nonequilibrium and equilibrium transport coefficients are equal in diffusive systems.

Finite-size corrections to the transport coefficients are characterized.

Theoretical results are validated through many-body model calculations.

Abstract

We address the question of whether transport coefficients obtained from a unitary closed system setting, i.e., the standard equilibrium Green-Kubo formula, are the same as the ones obtained from a weakly driven nonequilibrium steady-state calculation. We first derive a nonequilibrium Kubo-like expression for the steady-state diffusion constant expressed as a time-integral of either a current or a conserved density nonequilibrium correlation function. This expression has certain advantages over the equilibrium Green-Kubo formula, but is not clear if it gives the same value of the diffusion constant. We then rigorously show that, if the unitary dynamics is diffusive the nonequilibrium formula indeed gives exactly the same transport coefficient. The form of finite-size correction is also predicted. Theoretical results are verified by an explicit calculation of the diffusion constant in several interacting many-body models.