Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 27, 2025

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
The dynamic and thermodynamic origin of dissipative chaos: chemical Lorenz system
Feng Zhang1, Liufang Xu, Jin Wang
1State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, China.
Abstract:
Chaos appears widely in various chemical and physical systems and is often accompanied by nonequilibrium due to its dissipative nature. However, it is still not clear how dissipative chaos is influenced by nonequilibrium conditions. Here, we study chaos from the perspective of nonequilibrium dynamics by considering a chemical Lorenz system. We found that its nonequilibrium nature can be quantified from the steady-state probability flux in the state space. The dynamic origin for the onset and offset of dissipative chaos was from the sudden appearance and disappearance of such nonequilibrium fluxes. Meanwhile, the dissipation associated with the flux as quantified by the entropy production rate provides the thermodynamic origin of dissipative chaos. Sharp changes in the degree of nonequilibrium also provide alternative quantitative indicators for the onset and offset of dissipative chaos.
Related Concept Videos
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Second Law of Thermodynamics
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Entropy
Entropy
When an ideal gas expands isothermally, the disorder in the gas increases. From the molecular perspective, the gas molecules have more volume to move around in.
Consider an infinitesimal step in the expansion, which...
Entropy Change in Reversible Processes
The statement can be further generalized to prove that entropy is a state function. Take a cyclic process between any two points on a p-V diagram.

