Mesoscopic thermodynamics of stationary non-equilibrium states

Abstract

Thermodynamics for systems at non-equilibrium stationary states have been formulated, based on the assumption of the existence of a local equilibrium in phase space which enables one to interpret the probability density and its conjugated non-equilibrium chemical potential as mesoscopic thermodynamic variables. The probability current is obtained from the entropy production related to the probability diffusion process and leads to the formulation of the Fokker-Planck equation. For the case of a gas of Brownian particles under steady flow in the dilute and concentrated regimes, we derive non-equilibrium equations of state.