Non-Equilibrium Entropy and Irreversibility in Generalized Stochastic Loewner Evolution from an Information-Theoretic Perspective

In this study, we theoretically investigated a generalized stochastic Loewner evolution (SLE) driven by reversible Langevin dynamics in the context of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Using the ability of Loewner evolution, which enables encoding of non-equilibrium systems into equilibrium systems, we formulated the encoding mechanism of the SLE by Gibbs entropy-based information-theoretic approaches to discuss its advantages as a means to better describe non-equilibrium systems. After deriving entropy production and flux for the 2D trajectories of the generalized SLE curves, we reformulated the system’s entropic properties in terms of the Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence. We demonstrate that this operation leads to alternative expressions of the Jarzynski equality and the second law of thermodynamics, which are consistent with the previously suggested theory of information thermodynamics. The irreversibility of the 2D trajectories is similarly discussed by decomposing the entropy into additive and non-additive parts. We numerically verified the non-equilibrium property of our model by simulating the long-time behavior of the entropic measure suggested by our formulation, referred to as the relative Loewner entropy.

Loewner evolution of hedgehogs and 2-conformal measures of circle maps

Let f be a germ of a holomorphic diffeomorphism with an irrationally indifferent fixed point at the origin in $${\mathbb C}$$ (i.e. $$f(0) = 0, f'(0) = e^{2\pi i \alpha }, \alpha \in {\mathbb R} - {\mathbb Q}$$ ). Pérez-Marco [Fixed points and circle maps. Acta Math.179(2) (1997), 243–294] showed the existence of a unique continuous monotone one-parameter family of non-trivial invariant full continua containing the fixed point called Siegel compacta, and gave a correspondence between germs and families $$(g_t)$$ of circle maps obtained by conformally mapping the complement of these compacts to the complement of the unit disk. The family of circle maps $$(g_t)$$ is the orbit of a locally defined semigroup $$(\Phi _t)$$ on the space of analytic circle maps, which we show has a well-defined infinitesimal generator X. The explicit form of X is obtained by using the Loewner equation associated to the family of hulls $$(K_t)$$ . We show that the Loewner measures $$(\mu _t)$$ driving the equation are 2-conformal measures on the circle for the circle maps $$(g_t)$$ .

Coset construction of Virasoro minimal models and coupling of Wess–Zumino–Witten theory with Schramm–Loewner evolution

Schramm–Loewner evolution (SLE) is a random process that gives a useful description of fractal curves. After its introduction, many works concerning the connection between SLE and conformal field theory (CFT) have been carried out. In this paper, we develop a new method of coupling SLE with a Wess–Zumino–Witten (WZW) model for [Formula: see text], an example of CFT, relying on a coset construction of Virasoro minimal models. Generalizations of SLE that correspond to WZW models were proposed by previous works [E. Bettelheim et al., Stochastic Loewner evolution for conformal field theories with Lie group symmetries, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 (2005) 251601] and [Alekseev et al., On SLE martingales in boundary WZW models, Lett. Math. Phys. 97 (2011) 243–261], in which the parameters in the generalized SLE for [Formula: see text] were related to the level of the corresponding [Formula: see text]-WZW model. The present work unveils the mechanism of how the parameters were chosen, and gives a simpler proof of the result in these previous works, shedding light on a new perspective of SLE/WZW coupling.