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arXiv · 2103.12765

Continuous non-equilibrium transition driven by the heat flow

Yirui Zhang·Marek Litniewski·Karol Makuch·Pawel J. Zuk·Anna Maciolek·Robert Holyst
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Abstract

We discovered an out-of-equilibrium transition in the ideal gas between two walls, divided by an inner, adiabatic, movable wall. The system is driven out-of-equilibrium by supplying energy directly into the volume of the gas. At critical heat flux, we have found a continuous transition to the state with a low-density, hot gas on one side of the movable wall and a dense, cold gas on the other side. Molecular dynamic simulations of the soft-sphere fluid confirm the existence of the transition in the interacting system. We introduce a stationary state Helmholtz-like function whose minimum determines the stable positions of the internal wall. This transition can be used as a paradigm of transitions in stationary states and the Helmholtz-like function as a paradigm of the thermodynamic description of these states.

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Yirui Zhang, Marek Litniewski, Karol Makuch, Pawel J. Zuk, Anna Maciolek, Robert Holyst. 2021-03-23. Continuous non-equilibrium transition driven by the heat flow. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.104.024102

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