Abstract
We study time-dependent fluctuations in a simple electrical circuit made of a resistance and a capacitor. The capacitance has intrinsic dynamics, as a result -for instance- from polarization fluctuations of a dielectric medium inside the capacitor plates. In a generalized Langevin theory, the requirement of time reversal symmetry imposes strong constraints on the description of the fluctuations in this system. If a battery is inserted into it, time reversal symmetry of the fluctuations is broken during the time the battery keeps charged, despite the absence of macroscopic energy loss.
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References
Y. Pomeau, J. de Physique, 43, 859 (1982).
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N.G. van Kampen in Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry, North Holland 1981, exhibits a number of arguments against generalized use of the Langevin equation consisting in inserting into the r.h.s. of the macroscopic dynamical equations a random white noise. Indeed, it may be a rather formal device to describe in such a way the thermal fluctuations of a physical system. However, in the absence of a microscopic description of those fluctuations one may require at least to have theories consistent with the time reversal symmetry of equilibrium and with the Gibbs-Boltzmann statistical distribution of the one-time fluctuations.
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© 1987 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Dandoloff, R., Pomeau, Y. (1987). Fluctuations in “Metastable” Systems. In: Tirapegui, E., Villarroel, D. (eds) Instabilities and Nonequilibrium Structures. Mathematics and Its Applications, vol 33. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3783-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3783-3_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8183-2
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