Related papers: Using nonequilibrium fluctuation theorems to under…
The main subject of this thesis rests on the study ---at different levels of description--- of instabilities in systems which are driven, i.e., maintained far from equilibrium by an external forcing. We focus here on two main classes,…
The fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT) is a central result in statistical physics, both for classical and quantum systems. It establishes a relationship between the linear response of a system under a time-dependent perturbation and time…
We develop numerical schemes for solving the isothermal compressible and incompressible equations of fluctuating hydrodynamics on a grid with staggered momenta. We develop a second-order accurate spatial discretization of the diffusive,…
In the Langevin formalism, the delicate balance maintained between the fluctuations in the system and their corresponding dissipation may be upset by the presence of a secondary, space-dependent stochastic force, particularly in the low…
We introduce from an experimental point of view the main concepts of fluctuation theorems for work, heat and entropy production in out of equilibrium systems. We will discuss the important difference between the applications of these…
Measurements of any property of a microscopic system are bound to show significant deviations from the average, due to thermal fluctuations. For time-integrated currents such as heat, work or entropy production in a steady state, it is in…
From the perspective of quantum thermodynamics, realisable measurements cost work and result in measurement devices that are not perfectly correlated with the measured systems. We investigate the consequences for the estimation of work in…
The fluctuation theorem of Gallavotti and Cohen holds for finite systems undergoing Langevin dynamics. In such a context all non-trivial ergodic theory issues are by-passed, and the theorem takes a particularly simple form. As a particular…
The theory of large deviations has been applied successfully in the last 30 years or so to study the properties of equilibrium systems and to put the foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics on a clearer and more rigorous footing. A…
Using experiments on a colloidal particle trapped in an optical tweezer, we confirm a recent proposal to increase the effective mobility or clock rate of systems described by Langevin dynamics, by simultaneously scaling deterministic forces…
The asymptotic behaviour of the work probability distribution in driven non-equilibrium systems is determined using the method of optimal fluctuations. For systems described by Langevin dynamics the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation…
It has been become standard practice to describe steady-state non-equilibrium phenomena by Langevin equations with colored noise and time-dependent friction kernels that do not obey the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, but since these…
The concept of work is basic for statistical thermodynamics. To gain a fuller understanding of work and its (quantum) features, it needs to be represented as an average of a fluctuating quantity. Here I focus on the work done between two…
We study experimentally the thermal fluctuations of energy input and dissipation in a harmonic oscillator driven out of equilibrium, and search for Fluctuation Relations. We study transient evolution from the equilibrium state, together…
The properties of molecules and materials containing light nuclei are affected by their quantum mechanical nature. Modelling these quantum nuclear effects accurately requires computationally demanding path integral techniques. Considerable…
Large-scale cosmological simulations are an indispensable tool for modern cosmology. To enable model-space exploration, fast and accurate predictions are critical. In this paper, we show that the performance of such simulations can be…
We study the exponential convergence to the stationary state for nonequilibrium Langevin dynamics, by a perturbative approach based on hypocoercive techniques developed for equilibrium Langevin dynamics. The Hamiltonian and overdamped…
Fluctuation theorems are key to understanding both fundamental and applied aspects of non-equilibrium thermodynamics of small systems. We study the non-Markovian entropy production fluctuation theorem for the diffusion process of charged…
The internal dynamics of macro-molecular systems is characterized by widely separated time scales, ranging from fraction of ps to ns. In ordinary molecular dynamics simulations, the elementary time step dt used to integrate the equation of…
It has previously been shown that varying the numerical timestep during a symplectic orbital integration leads to a random walk in energy and angular momentum, destroying the phase space-conserving property of symplectic integrators. Here…