Microdynamics and equations of motion for macrovariables

Quantum local-equilibrium approach to dissipative hydrodynamics

The macroscopic hydrodynamic equations are derived for many-body systems in the local-equilibrium approach, using the Schrödinger picture of quantum mechanics. In this approach, statistical operators are defined in terms of microscopic densities associated with the fundamentally conserved quantities and other slow modes possibly emerging from continuous symmetry breaking, as well as macrofields conjugated to these densities. Functional identities can be deduced, allowing us to identify the reversible and dissipative parts of the mean current densities, to obtain general equations for the time evolution of the conjugate macrofields, and to establish the relationship to projection-operator methods. The entropy production is shown to be nonnegative by applying the Peierls-Bogoliubov inequality to a quantum integral fluctuation theorem. Using the expansion in the gradients of the conjugate macrofields, the transport coefficients are given by Green-Kubo formulas and the entropy production rate can be expressed in terms of quantum Einstein-Helfand formulas, implying its nonnegativity in agreement with the second law of thermodynamics. The results apply to multicomponent fluids and can be extended to condensed matter phases with broken continuous symmetries.

Mori-Zwanzig projection operator formalism: Particle-based coarse-grained dynamics of open classical systems far from equilibrium

We present a generalized Langevin equation (GLE) of motion that governs exactly the time evolution of phase-space observables in finite open systems described by classical Hamiltonians with explicitly time-dependent potentials. This formalism is based on the Mori-Zwanzig projection operator (PO) method with a time-independent Zwanzig PO within a Heisenberg (Lagrangian) picture and reduced description of Hamiltonian systems in terms of canonical relevant and irrelevant coordinates. We demonstrate that, similarly to closed systems, GLE dynamics in Hamiltonian systems in the presence of time-dependent potentials is determined by conservative, dissipative memory, and projected force fields, and that the memory functions relate to the projected force, which is a two-time process, in a way that is reminiscent of the equilibrium second fluctuation-dissipation relation. We further show that, in the most general case, the memory kernel depends on the relevant momentum gradients of the (Boltzmann) entropy of the irrelevant subsystem. Using two Zwanzig operators which are, respectively, functionals of the canonical and generalized canonical probability densities, we then derive what we call canonical and generalized canonical GLEs. Further, we can formulate the particle-based, coarse-grained (CG) GLE dynamics by transitioning to Jacobi coordinates which corresponds to a particle set partitioning of the Hamiltonian system. The obtained canonical CG GLE of motion for the relevant momenta is a generalization of the CG equation of motion known for closed systems. Also, using a Markovian approximation of the canonical CG GLE, we can extend the dissipative particle dynamics equation to open systems. A distinctive feature of our extension is a use of explicitly time-dependent frictions, which reflect the changes in the dissipation rate caused by time-dependent coupling to an external bath. Our GLE formalism and workflow constitute a general and viable framework that can be readily used as a starting point to rigorously formulate microscopically informed CG treatments for a variety of phenomena in externally forced systems far from equilibrium.

Comments on the validity of the non-stationary generalized Langevin equation as a coarse-grained evolution equation for microscopic stochastic dynamics

We recently showed that the dynamics of coarse-grained observables in systems out of thermal equilibrium are governed by the non-stationary generalized Langevin equation [H. Meyer, T. Voigtmann, and T. Schilling, J. Chem. Phys. 147, 214110 (2017); 150, 174118 (2019)]. The derivation we presented in these two articles was based on the assumption that the dynamics of the microscopic degrees of freedom were deterministic. Here, we extend the discussion to stochastic microscopic dynamics. The fact that the same form of the non-stationary generalized Langevin equation as derived for the deterministic case also holds for stochastic processes implies that methods designed to estimate the memory kernel, drift term, and fluctuating force term of this equation, as well as methods designed to propagate it numerically, can be applied to data obtained in molecular dynamics simulations that employ a stochastic thermostat or barostat.

Continuous stochastic processes with nonlocal memory

We study the non-Markovian random continuous processes described by the Mori-Zwanzig equation. As a starting point, we use the Markovian Gaussian Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process and introduce an integral memory term depending on the past of the process into an expression for the higher-order transition probability function and the stochastic differential equation. We show that the proposed processes can be considered as continuous-time interpolations of discrete-time higher-order autoregressive sequences. An equation connecting the memory function (the kernel of integral term) and the two-point correlation function is obtained. A condition for stationarity of the process is established. We suggest a method to generate stationary continuous stochastic processes with a prescribed pair correlation function. As an illustration, some examples of numerical simulation of the processes with nonlocal memory are presented.