The physicist's companion to current fluctuations: one-dimensional bulk-driven lattice gases

One of the main features of statistical systems out of equilibrium is the currents they exhibit in their stationary state: microscopic currents of probability between configurations, which translate into macroscopic currents of mass, charge, etc. Understanding the general behaviour of these currents is an important step towards building a universal framework for non-equilibrium steady states akin to the Gibbs–Boltzmann distribution for equilibrium systems. In this review, we consider one-dimensional bulk-driven particle gases, and in particular the asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) with open boundaries, which is one of the most popular models of one-dimensional transport. We focus, in particular, on the current of particles flowing through the system in its steady state, and on its fluctuations. We show how one can obtain the complete statistics of that current, through its large deviation function, by combining results from various methods: exact calculation of the cumulants of the current, using the integrability of the model; direct diagonalization of a biased process in the limits of very high or low current; hydrodynamic description of the model in the continuous limit using the macroscopic fluctuation theory. We give a pedagogical account of these techniques, starting with a quick introduction to the necessary mathematical tools, as well as a short overview of the existing works relating to the ASEP. We conclude by drawing the complete dynamical phase diagram of the current. We also remark on a few possible generalizations of these results.