No Arabic abstract
We examine the effectiveness of assuming an equal probability for states far from equilibrium. For this aim, we propose a method to construct a master equation for extensive variables describing non-stationary nonequilibrium dynamics. The key point of the method is the assumption that transient states are equivalent to the equilibrium state that has the same extensive variables, i.e., an equal probability holds for microscopic states in nonequilibrium. We demonstrate an application of this method to the critical relaxation of the two-dimensional Potts model by Monte Carlo simulations. While the one-variable description, which is adequate for equilibrium, yields relaxation dynamics that are very fast, redundant two-variable description well reproduces the true dynamics quantitatively. These results suggest that some class of the nonequilibrium state can be described with a small extension of degrees of freedom, which may lead to an alternative way to understand nonequilibrium phenomena.
Master equations are common descriptions of mesoscopic systems. Analytical solutions to these equations can rarely be obtained. We here derive an analytical approximation of the time-dependent probability distribution of the master equation using orthogonal polynomials. The solution is given in two alternative formulations: a series with continuous and a series with discrete support both of which can be systematically truncated. While both approximations satisfy the system size expansion of the master equation, the continuous distribution approximations become increasingly negative and tend to oscillations with increasing truncation order. In contrast, the discrete approximations rapidly converge to the underlying non-Gaussian distributions. The theory is shown to lead to particularly simple analytical expressions for the probability distributions of molecule numbers in metabolic reactions and gene expression systems.
We study equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of the single-impurity Anderson model with a power-law pseudogap in the density of states. In equilibrium, the model is known to display a quantum phase transition from a generalized Kondo to a local moment phase. In the present work, we focus on the extension of these phases beyond equilibrium, i.e. under the influence of a bias voltage. Within the auxiliary master equation approach combined with a scheme based on matrix product states (MPS) we are able to directly address the current-carrying steady state. Starting with the equilibrium situation, we first corroborate our results by comparing with a direct numerical evaluation of ground state spectral properties of the system by MPS. Here, a scheme to locate the phase boundary by extrapolating the power-law exponent of the self energy produces a very good agreement with previous results obtained by the numerical renormalization group. Our nonequilibrium study as a function of the applied bias voltage is then carried out for two points on either side of the phase boundary. In the Kondo regime the resonance in the spectral function is splitted as a function of the increasing bias voltage. The local moment regime, instead, displays a dip in the spectrum near the position of the chemical potentials. Similar features are observed in the corresponding self energies. The Kondo split peaks approximately obey a power-law behavior as a function of frequency, whose exponents depend only slightly on voltage. Finally, the differential conductance in the Kondo regime shows a peculiar maximum at finite voltages, whose height, however, is below the accuracy level.
We study voltage driven translocation of a single stranded (ss) DNA through a membrane channel. Our model, based on a master equation (ME) approach, investigates the probability density function (pdf) of the translocation times, and shows that it can be either double or mono-peaked, depending on the system parameters. We show that the most probable translocation time is proportional to the polymer length, and inversely proportional to the first or second power of the voltage, depending on the initial conditions. The model recovers experimental observations on hetro-polymers when using their properties inside the pore, such as stiffness and polymer-pore interaction.
For open systems described by the quantum master equation (QME), we investigate the excess entropy production under quasistatic operations between nonequilibrium steady states. The average entropy production is composed of the time integral of the instantaneous steady entropy production rate and the excess entropy production. We propose to define average entropy production rate using the average energy and particle currents, which are calculated by using the full counting statistics with QME. The excess entropy production is given by a line integral in the control parameter space and its integrand is called the Berry-Sinitsyn-Nemenman (BSN) vector. In the weakly nonequilibrium regime, we show that BSN vector is described by $ln breve{rho}_0$ and $rho_0$ where $rho_0$ is the instantaneous steady state of the QME and $breve{rho}_0$ is that of the QME which is given by reversing the sign of the Lamb shift term. If the system Hamiltonian is non-degenerate or the Lamb shift term is negligible, the excess entropy production approximately reduces to the difference between the von Neumann entropies of the system. Additionally, we point out that the expression of the entropy production obtained in the classical Markov jump process is different from our result and show that these are approximately equivalent only in the weakly nonequilibrium regime.
One particle in a classical perfect gas is driven out of equilibrium by changing its mass over a short time interval. The work done on the driven particle depends on its collisions with the other particles in the gas. This model thus provides an example of a non-equilibrium process in a system (the driven particle) coupled to an environment (the rest of the gas). We calculate the work done on the driven particle and compare the results to Jarzynskis equality relating a non-equilibrium work process to an equilibrium free-energy difference. The results for this model are generalised to the case of a system that is driven in one degree of freedom while interacting with the environment through other degrees of freedom.