Abstract
We propose a Langevin equation for systems in an environment with nonuniform temperature. At odds with an older proposal, ours admits a locally Maxwellian steady state, local equipartition holds, and for detailed-balanced (reversible) systems statistical and physical entropies coincide. We describe its thermodynamics, which entails a generalized version of the first law and Clausius's characterization of reversibility. Finally, we show that a Brownian particle constrained into a smooth curve behaves according to our equation, as if experiencing nonuniform temperature.
- Received 24 September 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.032126
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