Lagrangian phase transitions in nonequilibrium thermodynamic systems

In previous papers we have introduced a natural nonequilibrium free energy by considering the functional describing the large fluctuations of stationary nonequilibrium states. While in equilibrium this functional is always convex, in nonequilibrium this is not necessarily the case. We show that in nonequilibrium a new type of singularity can appear that is interpreted as a phase transition. In particular, this phenomenon occurs for the one-dimensional boundary driven weakly asymmetric exclusion process when the drift due to the external field is opposite to that due to the external reservoirs and is strong enough. (letter)