Macroscopic Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking at Nonequilibrium Phase Transition

Abstract: We study the entropy production in a macroscopic nonequilibrium system that undergoes an order-disorder phase transition. Entropy production is a characteristic feature of nonequilibrium dynamics with broken detailed balance. It is found that the entropy production rate per particle vanishes in the disordered phase and becomes positive in the ordered phase following critical scaling laws. We derive the scaling relations for associated critical exponents. Our study reveals that a nonequilibrium ordered state is sustained at the expense of macroscopic time-reversal symmetry breaking with an extensive entropy production while a disordered state costs only a subextensive entropy production.