Irreversibility in dynamical phases and transitions.

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Biochemistry
• Non-equilibrium thermodynamics

Background:

• Active matter systems dissipate energy at the microscale, leading to emergent macroscale behaviors like traveling waves and oscillations.
• Characterizing non-equilibrium systems often focuses on total energy dissipation, with less attention to its spatiotemporal manifestation.
• Understanding how dissipation shapes patterns is crucial for active matter research.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce a novel measure, the entropy production factor, to quantify irreversibility and broken time-reversal symmetry in field theories.
• Apply this measure to analyze a dynamical phase transition in the Brusselator model.
• Quantify the energetic cost and irreversibility distribution in synchronized biochemical oscillations.

Main Methods:

• Developed a scalar, dimensionless function termed the entropy production factor.
• Utilized computational simulations of the Brusselator model, a non-linear oscillator.
• Measured total energy consumption and irreversibility across spatiotemporal frequencies.

Main Results:

• The entropy production factor successfully quantifies how time-reversal symmetry is broken across different scales.
• A dynamical phase transition was characterized using this new measure in the Brusselator system.
• The study provides insights into the energetic costs associated with synchronized oscillations.

Conclusions:

• The entropy production factor offers a valuable tool for analyzing irreversibility in non-equilibrium systems.
• This measure aids in understanding the link between energy dissipation and emergent spatiotemporal patterns.
• The findings contribute to the characterization of active matter dynamics and phase transitions.