5,534 research outputs found
Amplification of compressional MHD waves in systems with forced entropy oscillations
The propagation of compressional MHD waves is studied for an externally
driven system. It is assumed that the combined action of the external sources
and sinks of the entropy results in the harmonic oscillation of the entropy
(and temperature) in the system. It is found that with the appropriate resonant
conditions fast and slow waves get amplified due to the phenomenon of
parametric resonance. Besides, it is shown that the considered waves are
mutually coupled as a consequence of the nonequilibrium state of the background
medium. The coupling is strongest when the plasma . The
proposed formalism is sufficiently general and can be applied for many
dynamical systems, both under terrestrial and astrophysical conditions.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Accepted to Physical Review
Depression and sickness behavior are Janus-faced responses to shared inflammatory pathways
It is of considerable translational importance whether depression is a form or a consequence of sickness behavior. Sickness behavior is a behavioral complex induced by infections and immune trauma and mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines. It is an adaptive response that enhances recovery by conserving energy to combat acute inflammation. There are considerable phenomenological similarities between sickness behavior and depression, for example, behavioral inhibition, anorexia and weight loss, and melancholic (anhedonia), physio-somatic (fatigue, hyperalgesia, malaise), anxiety and neurocognitive symptoms. In clinical depression, however, a transition occurs to sensitization of immuno-inflammatory pathways, progressive damage by oxidative and nitrosative stress to lipids, proteins, and DNA, and autoimmune responses directed against self-epitopes. The latter mechanisms are the substrate of a neuroprogressive process, whereby multiple depressive episodes cause neural tissue damage and consequent functional and cognitive sequelae. Thus, shared immuno-inflammatory pathways underpin the physiology of sickness behavior and the pathophysiology of clinical depression explaining their partially overlapping phenomenology. Inflammation may provoke a Janus-faced response with a good, acute side, generating protective inflammation through sickness behavior and a bad, chronic side, for example, clinical depression, a lifelong disorder with positive feedback loops between (neuro)inflammation and (neuro)degenerative processes following less well defined triggers
A meaningful expansion around detailed balance
We consider Markovian dynamics modeling open mesoscopic systems which are
driven away from detailed balance by a nonconservative force. A systematic
expansion is obtained of the stationary distribution around an equilibrium
reference, in orders of the nonequilibrium forcing. The first order around
equilibrium has been known since the work of McLennan (1959), and involves the
transient irreversible entropy flux. The expansion generalizes the McLennan
formula to higher orders, complementing the entropy flux with the dynamical
activity. The latter is more kinetic than thermodynamic and is a possible
realization of Landauer's insight (1975) that, for nonequilibrium, the relative
occupation of states also depends on the noise along possible escape routes. In
that way nonlinear response around equilibrium can be meaningfully discussed in
terms of two main quantities only, the entropy flux and the dynamical activity.
The expansion makes mathematical sense as shown in the simplest cases from
exponential ergodicity.Comment: 19 page
Non-equilibrium stationary state of a two-temperature spin chain
A kinetic one-dimensional Ising model is coupled to two heat baths, such that
spins at even (odd) lattice sites experience a temperature ().
Spin flips occur with Glauber-type rates generalised to the case of two
temperatures. Driven by the temperature differential, the spin chain settles
into a non-equilibrium steady state which corresponds to the stationary
solution of a master equation. We construct a perturbation expansion of this
master equation in terms of the temperature difference and compute explicitly
the first two corrections to the equilibrium Boltzmann distribution. The key
result is the emergence of additional spin operators in the steady state,
increasing in spatial range and order of spin products. We comment on the
violation of detailed balance and entropy production in the steady state.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, Revte
Discrimination between O-H…N and O-H…O=C Complexes of 3-Methyl-4-pyrimidone and Methanol. A Matrix-isolation FT-IR and Theoretical DFT/B3LYP Investigation
FT-IR matrix-isolated spectra for 3-methyl-4-pyrimidone and its H-bonded complexes with methanol in Ar were studied with the aim of discriminating between O-H…N and O-H…O=C complexes. Theoretical calculations were carried out using the DFT/B3LYP/6-31+G(d) methodology in an attempt to predict the preferred interaction site of the 3-methyl-4-pyrimidone molecule with proton donors. The observed frequency decrease of the ν(C=O) mode of 3-methyl-4-pyrimidone and the appearance of a broad ν(OH…O) band in the spectrum of the complex with methanol suggest that H-bonding with methanol occurs at the carbonyl group. Computed binding energies of the hydrogen-bonded complexes (ΔEc) and computed intermolecular distances (r(O…H)) confirm that the O-H…O=C complex is preferred with methanol. However, for H-bonding with stronger acids such as HCl, the computational data suggest that the H-bonding occurs at the N1 ring atom of 3-methyl-4-pyrimidone.Keywords: Matrix-isolation, 3-methyl-4-pyrimidone, methanol, FT-IR spectroscopy, DFT/B3LYP calculation
The Measure-theoretic Identity Underlying Transient Fluctuation Theorems
We prove a measure-theoretic identity that underlies all transient
fluctuation theorems (TFTs) for entropy production and dissipated work in
inhomogeneous deterministic and stochastic processes, including those of Evans
and Searles, Crooks, and Seifert. The identity is used to deduce a tautological
physical interpretation of TFTs in terms of the arrow of time, and its
generality reveals that the self-inverse nature of the various trajectory and
process transformations historically relied upon to prove TFTs, while necessary
for these theorems from a physical standpoint, is not necessary from a
mathematical one. The moment generating functions of thermodynamic variables
appearing in the identity are shown to converge in general only in a vertical
strip in the complex plane, with the consequence that a TFT that holds over
arbitrary timescales may fail to give rise to an asymptotic fluctuation theorem
for any possible speed of the corresponding large deviation principle. The case
of strongly biased birth-death chains is presented to illustrate this
phenomenon. We also discuss insights obtained from our measure-theoretic
formalism into the results of Saha et. al. on the breakdown of TFTs for driven
Brownian particles
Nonequilibrium Detailed Fluctuation Theorem for Repeated Discrete Feedback
We extend the framework of forward and reverse processes commonly utilized in
the derivation and analysis of the nonequilibrium work relations to
thermodynamic processes with repeated discrete feedback. Within this framework,
we derive a generalization of the detailed fluctuation theorem, which is
modified by the addition of a term that quantifies the change in uncertainty
about the microscopic state of the system upon making measurements of physical
observables during feedback. As an application, we extend two nonequilibrium
work relations: the nonequilibrium work fluctuation theorem and the
relative-entropy work relation.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Fluctuation theorems for stochastic dynamics
Fluctuation theorems make use of time reversal to make predictions about
entropy production in many-body systems far from thermal equilibrium. Here we
review the wide variety of distinct, but interconnected, relations that have
been derived and investigated theoretically and experimentally. Significantly,
we demonstrate, in the context of Markovian stochastic dynamics, how these
different fluctuation theorems arise from a simple fundamental time-reversal
symmetry of a certain class of observables. Appealing to the notion of Gibbs
entropy allows for a microscopic definition of entropy production in terms of
these observables. We work with the master equation approach, which leads to a
mathematically straightforward proof and provides direct insight into the
probabilistic meaning of the quantities involved. Finally, we point to some
experiments that elucidate the practical significance of fluctuation relations.Comment: 48 pages, 2 figures. v2: minor changes for consistency with published
versio
Convection cells induced by spontaneous symmetry breaking
Ubiquitous in nature, convection cells are a clear signature of systems
out-of-equilibrium. Typically, they are driven by external forces, like gravity
(in combination with temperature gradients) or shear. In this article, we show
the existence of such cells in possibly the simplest system, one that involves
only a temperature gradient. In particular, we consider an Ising lattice gas on
a square lattice, in contact with two thermal reservoirs, one at infinite
temperature and another at . When this system settles into a non-equilibrium
stationary state, many interesting phenomena exist. One of these is the
emergence of convection cells, driven by spontaneous symmetry breaking when
is set below the critical temperature.Comment: published version, 2 figures, 5 page
Quantum Trajectory Approach to the Stochastic Thermodynamics of a Forced Harmonic Oscillator
I formulate a quantum stochastic thermodynamics for the quantum trajectories
of a continuously-monitored forced harmonic oscillator coupled to a thermal
reservoir. Consistent trajectory-dependent definitions are introduced for work,
heat, and entropy, through engineering the thermal reservoir from a sequence of
two-level systems. Within this formalism the connection between irreversibility
and entropy production is analyzed and confirmed by proving a detailed
fluctuation theorem for quantum trajectories. Finally, possible experimental
verifications are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PRE; expanded introduction and
conclusion, corrected typos, new figure
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