Fock space and field theoretic description of nonequilibrium work relations

Abstract

Abstract We consider classical, interacting particles coupled to a thermal reservoir and subject to a local, time-varying potential while undergoing hops on a lattice. We impose detailed balance on the hopping rates and map the dynamics to the Fock space Doi representation, from which we derive the Jarzynski and Crooks relations. Here the local potential serves to drive the system far from equilibrium and to provide the work. Next, we utilize the coherent state representation to map the system to a Doi–Peliti field theory and take the continuum limit. We demonstrate that time reversal in this field theory takes the form of a gauge-like transformation which leaves the action invariant up to a generated work term. The time-reversal symmetry leads to a fundamental identity, from which we are able to derive the Jarzynski and Crooks relations, as well as a far-from-equilibrium generalization of the fluctuation-dissipation relation.