The Many Faces of Far-from-equilibrium Thermodynamics: Deterministic Chaos, Randomness or Emergent Order?

TL;DR

This paper revisits Rayleigh-Bénard convection to explore fundamental questions about non-equilibrium fluctuations, emergence of order, and energy bifurcation, offering new insights into far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics.

Contribution

It provides a first-principles perspective on far-from-equilibrium phenomena, addressing how order emerges and how fluctuations differ from equilibrium in a classic experiment.

Findings

Non-equilibrium fluctuations differ from equilibrium fluctuations.

Emergence of order breaks symmetries in the system.

Local bifurcation of free energy enables Carnot-like engines.

Abstract

Far-from-equilibrium systems are ubiquitous in nature. They are also rich in terms of diversity and complexity. Therefore, it is an intellectual challenge to be able to understand the physics of far-from-equilibrium phenomena. In this paper we revisit a standard tabletop experiment, the Rayleigh-B{\'e}nard convection, to explore some fundamental questions and present a new perspective from a first-principles point of view. How non-equilibrium fluctuations differ from equilibrium fluctuations, how emergence of order out-of-equilibrium breaks symmetries in the system, or how free-energy of a system gets locally bifurcated to operate a Carnot-like engine to maintain order? The exploration and investigation of these non-trivial questions are the focus of this paper.