Dissipation and lag in irreversible processes

¹  Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland - College Park, MD 20742, USA
²  Chemical Physics Program, University of Maryland - College Park, MD 20742, USA
³  Department of Chemistry, University of Maryland - College Park, MD 20742, USA

Received: 1 July 2009
Accepted: 10 September 2009

Abstract

When a system is perturbed by the variation of external parameters, a lag generally develops between the actual state of the system, , and the equilibrium state corresponding to the current parameter values, . We establish a microscopic, quantitative relation between this lag and the dissipated work that accompanies the process. We illustrate this relation using a model system.