Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics

While systems at equilibrium are treated in a unified manner through the partition function formalism, the statistical physics of out-of-equilibrium systems covers a large variety of situations that are often without apparent connection. This book proposes a unified perspective on the whole set of systems near equilibrium: it brings out the profound unity of the laws which govern them and gathers together a large number of results usually fragmented in the literature. The reader will find in this book a pedagogical account of the fundamental results: physical origins of irreversibility, fluctuation-dissipation theorem, Boltzmann equation, linear response, Onsager relations, transport phenomena, Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations. The book's comprehensive organization makes it valuable both as a textbook about irreversible phenomena and as a reference book for researchers.1. Random variables and random processes ; 2. Linear thermodynamics of irreversible processes ; 3. Statistical description of out-of-equilibrium systems ; 4. Classical systems: reduced distribution functions ; 5. The Boltzmann equation ; 6. Transport coefficients ; 7. From the Boltzmann equation to the hydrodynamic equations ; 8. The Bloch-Boltzmann theory of electronic transport ; 9. Master equations ; 10. Brownian motion: the Langevin model ; 11. Brownian motion: the Fokker-Planck equation ; 12. Linear responses and equilibrium correlations ; 13. General linear response theory ; 14. The fluctuation-dissipation theorem ; 15. Quantum theory of electronic transport ; 16. Thermal transport coefficients