Definition and relevance of nonequilibrium intensive thermodynamic parameters

TL;DR

This paper introduces a statistical framework to define and analyze nonequilibrium intensive thermodynamic parameters in steady-state systems, applicable to dissipative and flux-driven systems without requiring detailed balance.

Contribution

It presents a novel method to define nonequilibrium intensive parameters from a statistical perspective, applicable to a broad class of steady-state systems without detailed balance.

Findings

Defined nonequilibrium intensive parameters for steady states

Applicable to dissipative systems like granular gases

Analyzed contact effects between different nonequilibrium systems

Abstract

We show that intensive thermodynamic parameters associated to additive conserved quantities can be naturally defined from a statistical approach in far-from-equilibrium steady-state systems, under few assumptions, and without any detailed balance requirement. It may apply, e.g., to dissipative systems like granular gases where volume or mass is still conserved, or to systems with periodic boundary conditions where fluxes of conserved quantities are present. We emphasize the usefulness of this concept to characterize the coexistence of different nonequilibrium phases, and discuss the influence of the contact between two different systems, in relation with measurement issues.