Detailed balance in micro- and macrokinetics and micro-distinguishability of macro-processes

We develop a general framework for the discussion of detailed balance and analyse its microscopic background. We find that there should be two additions to the well-known T- or PT-invariance of the microscopic laws of motion: 1. Equilibrium should not spontaneously break the relevant T-or PT-symmetry. 2. The macroscopic processes should be microscopically distinguishable to guarantee persistence of detailed balance in the model reduction from micro-to macrokinetics. We briefly discuss examples of the violation of these rules and the corresponding violation of detailed balance. (C) 2014 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V.