Dissipative symmetry breaking in non-equilibrium steady states

TL;DR

This paper explores how dissipation relates to symmetry breaking in non-equilibrium steady states, revealing that entropy production and cycle dynamics govern symmetry phenomena, with implications for understanding selection processes.

Contribution

It introduces a non-equilibrium functional linking dissipation and symmetry breaking, highlighting the roles of additive and multiplicative noise in these processes.

Findings

NESS characterized by minimum entropy production and maximum cycle dissipation

Excess entropy production principle linked to symmetry breaking

Two dissipation contributions identified under multiplicative noise

Abstract

The connection between dissipation and symmetry breaking is a long-standing enigma in statistical physics. It is intimately connected to the quest of a non-equilibrium functional whose minimization gives the non-equilibrium steady state (NESS). Writing down such a functional, we show that, in the presence of additive noise, any NESS is characterized by the minimum entropy production compatible with the maximum dissipation along cycles in the trajectory space. This result sheds light on the excess entropy production principle and the onset of chiral symmetry breaking out-of-equilibrium, indicating that the housekeeping dissipation is connected with the tendency of performing cycles in a preferential direction. Finally, when multiplicative noise is present, we find that the non-equilibrium functional has two dissipative symmetry-breaking contributions, one stemming from cycles and the other from a thermophoresis-like effect. Our framework paves the way to understand selection phenomena as symmetry-breaking processes driven by non-equilibrium dissipation.