Related papers: Nonequilibrium thermodynamics at the microscale: W…
The interactions of tiny objects with their environment are dominated by thermal fluctuations. Guided by theory and assisted by micromanipulation tools, scientists have begun to study such interactions in detail.
We study nonequilibrium thermodynamics of complex information flows induced by interactions between multiple fluctuating systems. Characterizing nonequilibrium dynamics by causal networks (i.e., Bayesian networks), we obtain novel…
To describe the nonequilibrium states of a system we introduce a new thermodynamic parameter - the lifetime of a system. The statistical distributions which can be obtained out of the mesoscopic description characterizing the behaviour of a…
We propose a new form of the Second Law inequality that defines a tight bound for extractable work from the non-equilibrium quantum state. In classical thermodynamics, the optimal work is given by the difference of free energy, what…
In quantum systems which satisfy the hypothesis of equal weights for eigenstates [4], the maximum work principle (for extremely slow and relatively fast operation) is derived by using quantum dynamics alone. This may be a crucial step in…
We derive a Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relation bounding the mean squared displacement of a Gaussian process with memory, driven out of equilibrium by unbalanced thermal baths and/or by external forces. Our bound is tighter with respect to…
Events in mesoscopic systems often take place at first-passage times, as is for instance the case for a colloidal particle that escapes a metastable state. An interesting question is how much work an external agent has done on a particle…
The second law of thermodynamics for adiabatic operations -- constraints on state transitions in closed systems under external control -- is one of the fundamental principles of thermodynamics. On the other hand, it is recently established…
A microscopic definition of the thermodynamic entropy in an isolated quantum system must satisfy (i) additivity, (ii) extensivity and (iii) the second law of thermodynamics. We show that the diagonal entropy, which is the Shannon entropy in…
We solve a set of selected exercises on rotational motion requiring a mechanical and thermodynamical analysis. When non-conservative forces or thermal effects are present, a complete study must use the first law of thermodynamics together…
At very small scales, thermodynamic energy exchanges like work and heat become comparable to thermal energy of the system, which leads to unusual phenomena like the transient violations of Second Law. We explore the generic characters of…
All presently available results lead to the conclusion that nonextensivity, in the sense of nonextensive statistical mechanics (i.e., $q \ne 1$), does {\it not} modify anything to the second principle of thermodynamics, which therefore…
Several models of quantum open systems are known at present to violate, according to principles of the standard quantum theory of open systems, the second law of thermodynamics. Here, a new and rather trivial model of another type is…
Twentyseven comments (.) on the Second Law and nonequilibrium systems
Thermodynamics is commonly presented as a theory of macroscopic systems in stable equilibrium, built upon assumptions of extensivity and scaling with system size. In this paper, we present a universal formulation of the elementary…
In our derivation of the second law of thermodynamics from the relation of adiabatic accessibility of equilibrium states we stressed the importance of being able to scale a system's size without changing its intrinsic properties. This…
The Gibbs distribution universally characterizes states of thermal equilibrium. In order to extend the Gibbs distribution to non-equilibrium steady states, one must relate the self-information $\mathcal{I}(x) = -\log(P_\text{ss}(x))$ of…
The second law of equilibrium thermodynamics explains the direction of spontaneous processes in a system after removing internal constraints. When the system only exchanges energy with the environment as heat, the second law states that…
In textbooks on statistical mechanics, one finds often arguments based on classical mechanics, phase space and ergodicity in order to justify the second law of thermodynamics. However, the basic equations of motion of classical mechanics…
Microreversibility rules the fluctuations of the currents flowing across open systems in nonequilibrium (or equilibrium) steady states. As a consequence, the statistical cumulants of the currents and their response coefficients at arbitrary…