Related papers: Arbitrarily slow, non-quasistatic, isothermal tran…

We consider two-dimensional stochastic differential equations, describing the motion of a slowly and periodically forced overdamped particle in a double-well potential, subjected to weak additive noise. We give sharp asymptotics of…

We propose a general framework to study transformations that drive an underdamped Brownian particle in contact with a thermal bath from an equilibrium state to a new one in an arbitrarily short time. To this end, we make use of a time and…

The minimum work principle states that work done on a thermally isolated equilibrium system is minimal for the adiabatically slow (reversible) realization of a given process. This principle, one of the formulations of the second law, is…

The noise driven motion in a bistable potential acts as the archetypal model of various physical phenomena. Here, we contrast the overdamped dynamics with the full (underdamped) dynamics. For the overdamped particle driven by a…

Diffusive motion in an externally driven potential is considered. It is shown that the distribution of work required to drive the system from an initial equilibrium state to another is Gaussian for slow but finite driving. Our result is…

Isothermal processes of a finitely extended, driven quantum system in contact with an infinite heat bath are studied from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics. Notions like heat flux, work and entropy are defined for…

The study of thermodynamic fluctuations allows one to relate the free energy difference between two equilibrium states with the work done on a system through processes far from equilibrium. This finding plays a crucial role in the quantum…

The minimal work principle states that work done on a thermally isolated equilibrium system is minimal for adiabatically slow (reversible) realization of a given process. This principle, one of the formulations of the second law, is studied…

We consider damped stochastic systems in a controlled (time-varying) quadratic potential and study their transition between specified Gibbs-equilibria states in finite time. By the second law of thermodynamics, the minimum amount of work…

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics can provide strong advantages when compared to more standard equilibrium situations. Here, we present a general framework to study its application to concrete problems, which is valid also beyond the…

Obtaining adiabatic processes that connect equilibrium states in a given time represents a challenge for mesoscopic systems. In this paper, we explicitly show how to build these finite-time adiabatic processes for an overdamped Brownian…

We propose an arbitrary driven spin as the working fluid of a quantum Otto cycle in the presence of internal friction. The role of total allocated time to the adiabatic branches of the cycle, generated by different control field profiles,…

A process, carried out in a stepwise manner, becomes quasi-static when the number of intermediate steps tends to infinity. Usually, the net entropy production approaches zero under this limiting condition. Hence, such cases are termed…

If a system is at thermodynamic equilibrium, an observer cannot tell whether a film of it is being played forward or in reverse: any transition will occur with the same frequency in the forward as in the reverse direction. However, if…

Spinodal decomposition in a near-critical binary fluid is examined for experimental scenarios in which the liquid is quenched abruptly by changing the pressure and the subsequent phase separation occurs with no heat flow from the outside,…

We design fast bias inversions of an asymmetric double well so that the lowest states in each well remain so and free from residual motional excitation. This cannot be done adiabatically, and a sudden bias switch produces in general…

Nonequilibrium phenomena of the phase transitions are studied. It is shown that due to finite relaxation time of the particle distributions, the use of scalar background dependent distribution functions is inconsistent.This observation may…

Through experimental investigation into the behaviour of a polar dielectric working fluid, an ideal quasi-thermodynamic cycle has been established. Particular stages of this cycle are described in terms of a condensed-matter analogue of the…

We construct a model of short-range interacting Ising spins on a translationally invariant two-dimensional lattice that mimics a reversible circuit that multiplies or factorizes integers, depending on the choice of boundary conditions. We…

We study the physics of quantum phase transitions from the perspective of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. For first order quantum phase transitions, we find that the average work done per quench in crossing the critical point is…