Non-equilibrium Phase Coexistence in Boundary-Driven Diffusive Systems

Abstract Liquid–gas phase coexistence in a boundary-driven diffusive system is studied by analyzing fluctuating hydrodynamics of a density field defined on a one-dimensional lattice with a space interval $$\varLambda $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>Λ</mml:mi> </mml:math> . When an interface width $$\ell $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi> </mml:math> is much larger than $$\varLambda $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>Λ</mml:mi> </mml:math> , the discrete model becomes the standard fluctuating hydrodynamics, where the phase coexistence condition is given by the local equilibrium thermodynamics. In contrast, when $$\ell &lt; \varLambda $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo> <mml:mi>Λ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , the most probable density profile is determined by a new variational principle, where the chemical potential at the interface is found to deviate from the equilibrium coexistence chemical potential. This means that metastable states at equilibrium stably appear near the interface as the influence of the particle current. The variational function derived in the theoretical analysis is also found to be equivalent to the variational function formulated in an extended framework of thermodynamics called global thermodynamics. Finally, the validity of the theoretical result is confirmed by numerical simulations.