"electrochemical potential" 的解具有轴对称性及其平衡态解的分类的Credit是属于Lars Onsager

这个可以读一下Lars Onsager的1968年诺贝尔化学奖演讲稿,The Motion of Ions: Principles and Concepts

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1968/onsager-lecture.pdf

从该演讲稿的276页
"Going back to the time when I revised the theory of Debye and Hückel, the task was by no means easy."开始的段落到
278页的
"equals the degradation of free energy, and it is a minimum in a case of stationary flow."
Lars Onsager列出了五个公式,并介绍了自己是如何推导出这个对称性解的。
For the relaxation effect I could depend on Newton's principle of action and reaction; for all the complications of hydrodynamics a "principle of least dissipation" derived by Helmholtz assured the symmetry.

在这个1968年的演讲稿中, Lars Onsager对Maier-Saupe potential根本没有提一句,后者不过是"electrochemical potential" 的一个具体例子而已。