Fluctuations far from equilibrium: Hyperbolic transport

Abstract

The problem of the statistical properties of fluctuations in systems far from equilibrium is addressed. The discussion is based on a variational approach to hyperbolic transport equations built in a space spanned by the usual thermodynamic properties plus a set of potential functions associated with them. The enlarged space characterizes the far from equilibrium states of the system and fluctuations in the potential functions satisfy the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation. Well known results on processes near equilibrium are recovered in the parabolic transport limit.