On the characterization of the stationary state of a class of dynamical semigroups

We consider a representation of the entropy production for a completely positive, trace-preserving dynamical semigroup satisfying detailed balance with respect to its faithful stationary state denned on aW*-algebra(): it is expressed as a positive Hermitian form on(), which is analogous to the quantum correlation functions used in the Kubo theory. By considering this Hermitian form as a variation function of a vector in(), an exact characterization of the stationary states of semigroups in a certain class is obtained. On this basis, the problem of characterizing the stationary states discussed by Spohn and Lebowitz for manyreservoir open systems is solved without the restriction to situations near thermal equilibrium.