NSF-BSF: Organization Far From Equilibrium

Non-technical Abstract The aim of this research is to discover the organizational principles of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Equilibrium thermodynamics, developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, is used to calculate how machines, animals and plants work. In equilibrium a forward and a backward sequence of events are equally probable, no work is done. Hence: “if you’re in equilibrium you’re dead”. Luckily our world is far from equilibrium. Thermodynamics tells us how energy, particle concentration, etc., are partitioned when systems interact. We will use mathematical models and closely related experimental systems that can be driven continuously from equilibrium to non-equilibrium. As we leave equilibria, we will study how the relationships between, energy and temperature, density and pressure, etc. change, how the equations can be modified. Better understanding of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics will lead to more efficient use and generation of energy, new processing techniques, new materials and better understanding of biology and life. International workforce development is also to be strengthened by the junior researchers working together and learning different techniques and approaches to problem solving. Technical Abstract Many natural and industrial processes take place far from equilibrium where we lack the fundamental organizational principles, the laws of thermodynamics, available in equilibrium. The aim of the research proposed here is to quantify “out-of-equilibriumness”, order, entropy and other measurables and develop their use in describing the properties of dynamic stationary states. The American and Israeli PI’s have developed three new tools: 1) Computable Information Density, CID, an entropy/complexity approximate that indicates ordering, 2) time and length correlations by a CID decimation process, 3) Universal Local Entropy Production, (EP) , by violations of detailed balance comparing the first half of a movie with the time reversed second half. The study involves systems that can be tuned continuously from equilibrium to non-equilibrium while measuring CID, EP as well as the partitioning of particles, pressure, entropy, etc. Studies will include how particles are partitioned when two systems can exchange - is there a new form of chemical potential that holds? A question is whether as one leaves equilibrium the changes can be handled perturbatively. The models that will be studied are interesting because they can be treated theoretically, by simulation and by experiment. These model systems have also led to interesting new dynamical phase transitions and the physical creation of materials that cannot be made from equilibrium. Along with fundamental contributions to science, better understanding of non-equilibrium phenomena will lead to more efficient generation and use of energy, new processing technologies, new materials and new insights into biology and life. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.