Projected generalized free energies for non-equilibrium states

Abstract

We develop a systematic procedure to approximate generalized free energy in out of equilibrium stochastic systems. The procedure only requires knowledge of the averages of macroscopic observables and uses quasi-equilibrium distribution to this task. As an application we consider model systems in the regime of diverging relaxation times. We find that geometry of the approximate generalized free energy changes at the onset of this phenomena.