Entropy production in chiral symmetry breaking transitions.

It is now well known that nonequilibrium chemical systems may reach conditions that spontaneously generate chiral asymmetry. One can find a host of model reactions that exhibit such behavior in the literature. Among these, models based on one originally devised by Frank have been studied extensively. Though the kinetic aspects of such model reactions have been discussed in great detail, the behavior of entropy in such systems is rarely discussed. In this article, the rate of entropy production per unit volume, sigma, in a modified Frank model is discussed. It is shown that the slope of sigma changes at the point at which the asymmetric states appear, behavior similar to that observed in second-order phase transitions. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.