Nonequilibrium Entropy in an Extended State Space

Abstract: This chapter deals with our recent attempt to extend the notion of equilibrium (EQ) entropy to nonequilibrium (NEQ) systems so that it can also capture memory effects. This is done by enlarging the equilibrium state space by introducing internal variables. These variables capture the irreversibility due to internal processes. By a proper choice of the enlarged state space, the entropy becomes a state function, which shares many properties of the EQ entropy, except for a nonzero irreversible entropy generation. We give both a thermodynamic and statistical extension of the entropy and prove their equivalence in all cases by taking an appropriate state space. This provides a general nonnegative statistical expression of the entropy for any situation. We use the statistical formulation to prove the second law. We give several examples to determine the required internal variables, which we then apply to several cases of interest to calculate the entropy generation. We also provide a possible explanation for why the entropy in the classical continuum 1-d Tonks gas can become negative by considering a lattice model for which the entropy is always nonnegative.