Equivalence principle and critical behaviour for nonequilibrium decay modes

Abstract: We generalize an orthonormality relation between decay eigenmodes of equilibrium systems to nonequilibrium markovian generators which commute with their time-reversal. Viewing such modes as tangent vectors to the manifold of statistical ensembles, we relate the result to the choice of a coordinate patch which makes the Fisher-Rao metric euclidean at the invariant state, realizing a sort of statistical equivalence principle. Finally, we classify nonequilibrium systems according to their spectrum, arguing that a degenerate Fisher matrix is a signature of the insurgence of a class of phase transitions between nonequilibrium regimes. We exhibit an order parameter with power-law critical decay and prove divergent correlations between suitable unbiased estimators.