Entropy production and Onsager reciprocal relations describing the relaxation to equilibrium in stochastic thermodynamics.

Abstract

We study the relation between stochastic thermodynamics and nonequilibrium thermodynamics by evaluating the entropy production and the relation between fluxes and forces in a harmonic system with N particles in contact with N different reservoirs. We suppose that the system is in a nonequilibrium stationary state in a first phase and we study the relaxation to equilibrium in a second phase. During this relaxation, we can identify the linear relation between fluxes and forces satisfying the Onsager reciprocity and we obtain a nonlinear expression for the entropy production. Only when forces and fluxes are small does the entropic production turn into a quadratic form in the forces, as predicted by the Onsager theory.