Asymptotic solutions of Fokker-Planck equations for nonlinear irreversible processes and generalized Onsager-Machlup theory

Fokker-Planck equations for nonlinear processes are solved asymptotically in the limit k→0 where k is the Boltzmann constant. It is shown that the leading asymptotic solutions for conditional (two-gate) distribution functions simply correspond to generalizations of the Onsager-Machlup theory to nonlinear processes. The asumptotic solution method used in the paper is similar to the well-known W.K.B. method in quantum mechanics. A stability criterion of nonlinear irreversible processes is also considered and compared with the Glansdorff-Prigogine stability criterion.