Thermodynamics of nonequilibrium driven diffusive systems in mild contact with boundary reservoirs

Abstract

We consider macroscopic systems in weak contact with boundary reservoirs and under the action of external fields. We present an explicit formula for the Hamiltonian of such systems, from which we deduce the equation of motions, the action functional, the hydrodynamic equation for the adjoint dynamics, and a formula for the quasi-potential. We examine the case in which the external forcing depends on time and drives the system from one nonequilibrium state to another. We extend the results presented in [6] on thermodynamic transformations for systems in strong contact with boundary reservoirs to the present situation. In particular, we propose a natural definition of renormalized work, and show that it satisfies a Clausius inequality, and that quasi-static transformations minimize the renormalized work. In addition, we connect the renormalized work to the quasi-potential describing the fluctuations in the stationary nonequilibrium ensemble.