Geometrical Expression of Excess Entropy Production

Abstract

We derive a geometrical expression of the excess entropy production for quasi-static transitions between nonequilibrium steady states of Markovian jump processes, which can be exactly applied to nonlinear and nonequilibrium situations. The obtained expression is geometrical; the excess entropy production depends only on a trajectory in the parameter space, analogous to the Berry phase in quantum mechanics. Our results imply that vector potentials are needed to construct thermodynamics of nonequilibrium steady states.