Do Nonequilibrium Processes Have Features in Common?

Leonid M. Martyushev

Published 2007-09-03Version 1

The nature takes the easiest and most accessible paths and, hence, processes are accomplished very quickly in a minimum time. In 1662 P. Fermat used this principle to work out the refraction law. This was one of the first known attempts at successful deductive description of a physical phenomenon involving the variational principle. Presently researchers concerned with nonequilibrium processes have turned back to Fermat's idea in the form of the maximum entropy production principle (MEPP). MEPP has proved to be good for understanding and description of diverse nonequilibrium processes in physics, chemistry and biology. This brings up two questions: 1) Can this principle claim to be the basis of all nonequilibrium physics? 2) Is it possible to prove MEPP?