Thermodynamics and phase transitions in dissipative and active Morse chains

We study the evolution of a simple one-dimensional chain of N=4 particles with Morse interactions and periodic boundary conditions which are imbedded into a heat bath creating dissipation and noise. The investigation is concentrated on thermodynamic properties for equilibrium, near-equilibrium and far-equilibrium conditions. For the thermodynamic equilibrium, created by white noise and passive friction obeying Einstein’s fluctuation dissipation relation, we find a standard phase diagram. By applying active friction forces the system is driven to stationary non-equilibrium states, creating conditions where various self-sustained oscillations are excited. Thermodynamic quantities like energy, pressure and entropy are calculated near equilibrium, around a critical distance from equilibrium and far from equilibrium. We observe maximal order (minimum entropy) in certain region of the noise temperature, a phenomenon which is reminiscent of stochastic resonance. With increasing distance from equilibrium new “phases” corresponding to the existence of several attractors of the dynamical stem appear. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2005