Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: Nonequilibrium steady-state currents, unlike their equilibrium counterparts, continuously dissipate energy into their physical surroundings leading to entropy production and time-reversal symmetry breaking. This Letter discusses these issues in the context of quantum impurity models. We use simple thermodynamic arguments to define the rate of entropy production sigma and show that sigma has a simple information-theoretic interpretation in terms of nonequilibrium distribution functions. This allows us to show that the entropy production is strictly positive for any nonequilibrium steady state. We conclude by applying these ideas to the resonance level model and the Kondo model.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Authors: Pankaj Mehta, Natan Andrei
Institution: Princeton University
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1999436838