Nonequilibrium stochastic processes: time dependence of entropy flux and entropy production.

Based on the Fokker-Planck and the entropy balance equations we have studied the relaxation of a dissipative dynamical system driven by external Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise processes in the absence and presence of nonequilibrium constraint in terms of the thermodynamically inspired quantities such as entropy flux and entropy production. The interplay of nonequilibrium constraint, dissipation, and noise reveals some interesting extremal nature in the time dependence of entropy flux and entropy production.