Starting from a macroscopic nonequilibrium entropy, we obtain an expression for the nonequilibrium fluctuations of the electric current in a metallic resistor. Our method goes further than previous theories of irreversible thermodynamics and, as well as microscopic entropies, it leads to results of the same order of magnitude but not completely coincident with the full nonequilibrium corrections obtained from kinetic methods by Tremblay et al.

• Received 21 October 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.25.3277