Non-equilibrium potentials

The statistical properties of systems at equilibrium are completely  described by the Boltzmann's Ensemble Theory (later developed by Gibbs). It gets probability distributions such that the averages of mechanical versions of the thermodynamic variables follow thermodynamic relations. For systems at nonequilibrium stationary states we lack of a macrocopic reference theory and it is much more complicated to obtain an ensemble theory similar to the equilibrium one. In the seminar we will discuss the actual state of art in the development of such nonequilibrium ensembles and we will show some recent results that gives some hints about the complexity of the task.