Time reversibility and nonequilibrium thermodynamics of second-order stochastic processes.

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics of a general second-order stochastic system is investigated. We prove that at steady state, under inversion of velocities, the condition of time reversibility over the phase space is equivalent to the antisymmetry of spatial flux and the symmetry of velocity flux. Then we show that the condition of time reversibility alone cannot always guarantee the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Comparing the two conditions together, we find that the frictional force naturally emerges as the unique odd term of the total force at thermodynamic equilibrium, and is followed by the Einstein relation. The two conditions respectively correspond to two previously reported different entropy production rates. In the case where the external force is only position dependent, the two entropy production rates become one. We prove that such an entropy production rate can be decomposed into two non-negative terms, expressed respectively by the conditional mean and variance of the thermodynamic force associated with the irreversible velocity flux at any given spatial coordinate. In the small inertia limit, the former term becomes the entropy production rate of the corresponding overdamped dynamics, while the anomalous entropy production rate originates from the latter term. Furthermore, regarding the connection between the first law and second law, we find that in the steady state of such a limit, the anomalous entropy production rate is also the leading order of the Boltzmann-factor weighted difference between the spatial heat dissipation densities of the underdamped and overdamped dynamics, while their unweighted difference always tends to vanish.