Ergodicity of non-Hamiltonian Equilibrium Systems

It is well known that ergodic theory can be used to formally prove a form of relaxation to microcanonical equilibrium for finite, mixing Hamiltonian systems. In this manuscript we substantially modify this proof using an approach similar to that used in umbrella sampling, and use this approach to consider relaxation in both Hamiltonian and non-Hamiltonian systems. In doing so, we demonstrate the need for a form of ergodic consistency of the initial and final distribution. The approach only applies to relaxation of averages of physical properties and low order probability distribution functions. It does not provide any information about whether the full 6N -dimensional phase space distribution relaxes towards the equilibrium distribution or how long the relaxation of physical averages takes.