Nonequilibrium Partition Identity
Another remarkably simple and elegant consequence of the FT is the so-called "nonequilibrium partition identity" (NPI):
Thus in spite of the Second Law Inequality which might lead you to expect that the average would decay exponentially with time, the exponential probability ratio given by the FT exactly cancels the negative exponential in the average above leading to an average which is unity for all time!
There are many important implications from the FT. One is that small machines (such as nanomachines or even mitochondria in a cell) will spend part of their time actually running in "reverse". By "reverse", it is meant that they function so as to run in a way opposite to that for which they were presumably designed. As an example, consider a jet engine. If a jet engine were to run in "reverse" in this context, it would take in ambient heat and exhaust fumes to generate kerosene and oxygen.
Read more about this topic: Fluctuation Theorem
Famous quotes containing the word identity:
“The female culture has shifted more rapidly than the male culture; the image of the go-get em woman has yet to be fully matched by the image of the lets take-care-of-the-kids- together man. More important, over the last thirty years, mens underlying feelings about taking responsibility at home have changed much less than womens feelings have changed about forging some kind of identity at work.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)