Minimization of the Renyi entropy production in the stationary states of the Brownian process with matched death and birth rates.

ABSTRACT

We analyze the Fleming-Viot process. The system is confined in a box, whose boundaries act as a sink of Brownian particles. The death rate at the boundaries is matched by the branching (birth) rate in the system and thus the number of particles is kept constant. We show that such a process is described by the Renyi entropy whose production is minimized in the stationary state. The entropy production in this process is a monotonically decreasing function of time irrespective of the initial conditions. The first Laplacian eigenvalue is shown to be equal to the Renyi entropy production in the stationary state. As an example we simulate the process in a two-dimensional box.