Work and heat probability distributions in out-of-equilibrium systems

Abstract

We review and discuss the equations governing the distribution of work done on a system which is driven out of equilibrium by external manipulation, as well as those governing the entropy flow to a reservoir in a nonequilibrium system. We take advantage of these equations to investigate the path phase transition in a manipulated mean-field Ising model and the large-deviation function for the heat flow in the asymmetric exclusion process with periodically varying transition probabilities. To cite this article: A. Imparato, L. Peliti, C. R. Physique 8 (2007). © 2007 Académie des sciences.