2004/08/10 by Denis J. Evans, Evans, Denis J.
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0408195
10 pages. submitted to Phys Rev Letts
arxiv created 2004/08/10 · openalex publication_date 2004/08/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recently van Zon and Cohen [1-3] proposed an extension of the Fluctuation Theorems (FTs) of Evans and Searles [4]. For dissipative nonequilibrium systems, Cohen and van Zon studied the fluctuations of the heat absorbed, over a period of time t, by a surrounding thermostat. They showed theoretically that for thermostatted systems their extension does not exhibit the standard form expected for FTs and In the present paper we show that for thermostatted nonequilibrium steady states modeled by Langevin dynamics, the heat function is in fact identical to the time integral of the phase space compression factor which appears in the Gallavotti-Cohen FT (GCFT). Thus the work of van Zon and Cohen confirms at least for Langevin systems, that the GCFT does not apply to thermostatted steady states.