Stationary States, Fluctuations, and Stability
In thermodynamics one is often interested in a stationary state of a process, allowing that the stationary state include the occurrence of unpredictable and experimentally unreproducible fluctuations in the state of the system. The fluctuations are due to the system's internal sub-processes and to exchange of matter or energy with the system's surroundings that create the constraints that define the process.
If the stationary state of the process is stable, then the unreproducible fluctuations involve local transient decreases of entropy. The reproducible response of the system is then to increase the entropy back to its maximum by irreversible processes: the fluctuation cannot be reproduced with a significant level of probability. Fluctuations about stable stationary states are extremely small except near critical points (Kondepudi and Prigogine 1998, page 323). The stable stationary state has a local maximum of entropy and is locally the most reproducible state of the system. There are theorems about the irreversible dissipation of fluctuations. Here 'local' means local with respect to the abstract space of thermodynamic coordinates of state of the system.
If the stationary state is unstable, then any fluctuation will almost surely trigger the virtually explosive departure of the system from the unstable stationary state. This can be accompanied by increased export of entropy.
Read more about this topic: Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics
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