Related papers: Complementary aspects of non-equilibrium thermodyn…
In addition to providing general constraints on probability distributions, fluctuation theorems allow to infer essential information on the role played by temperature in heat exchange phenomena. In this numerical study, we measure the…
For processes during which a macroscopic system exchanges no heat with its surroundings, the second law of thermodynamics places two lower bounds on the amount of work performed on the system: a weak bound, expressed in terms of a…
According to classical Boltzmannian thermodynamics, the efficiency of a cyclic machine is strictly lower than one. Such a result is a straightforward consequence of the second principle of thermodynamics. Recent advances in the study of the…
Thermodynamics is traditionally concerned with systems comprised of a large number of particles. Here we present a framework for extending thermodynamics to individual quantum systems, including explicitly a thermal bath and work-storage…
We analytically study the role of nonconservative forces, namely viscous couplings, on the statistical properties of the energy flux between two Brownian particles kept at different temperatures. From the dynamical model describing the…
Complementarity is one of the main features underlying the interactions in biological and biochemical systems. Inspired by those systems we propose a model for the dynamical evolution of a system composed by agents that interact due to…
The mechanical properties within living cells play a critical role in the adaptive regulation of their biological functions upon environmental and internal stimuli. While these properties exhibit nonequilibrium dynamics due to the thermal…
Predicting future observations plays a central role in machine learning, biology, economics, and many other fields. It lies at the heart of organizational principles such as the variational free energy principle and has even been shown --…
Fluctuations in biochemical networks, e.g., in a living cell, have a complex origin that precludes a description of such systems in terms of bipartite or multipartite processes, as is usually done in the framework of stochastic and/or…
Thermodynamic principles are often deceptively simple and yet surprisingly powerful. We show how a simple rule, such as the net flow of energy in and out of a moving atom under nonequilibrium steady state condition, can expose the…
Life is a planetary feature that depends on its environment, but it has also strongly shaped the physical conditions on Earth, having created conditions highly suitable for a productive biosphere. Clearly, the second law of thermodynamics…
Structure-forming systems are ubiquitous in nature, ranging from atoms building molecules to self-assembly of colloidal amphibolic particles. The understanding of the underlying thermodynamics of such systems remains an important problem.…
We consider the problem of constructing a thermodynamic theory of non-equilibrium steady states as a formal extension of the equilibrium theory. Specifically, studying a particular system, we attempt to construct a phenomenological theory…
We present two examples of how single-molecule experimental techniques applied to biological systems can give insight into problems within the scope of equilibrium and nonequilibrium mesoscopic thermodynamics. The first example is the…
Thermal fluctuations constantly and evenly excite all vibrational modes in an equilibrium crystal. As the temperature rises, these fluctuations promote the formation of defects and eventually melting. In active solids, the self-propulsion…
Fluctuation theorems and the second law of thermodynamics are powerful relations constraining the behavior of out-of-equilibrium systems. While there exist generalizations of these relations to feedback controlled quantum systems, their…
A few decades after Hill's work on nano-thermodynamics, the development of a thermodynamic framework, to account consistently for the fluctuations of small systems due to their interactions with the surrounding environment, is still…
We consider continuously monitored quantum systems and introduce definitions of work and heat along individual quantum trajectories that are valid for coherent superpositions of energy eigenstates. We use these quantities to extend the…
In the real world, one almost never knows the parameters of a thermodynamic process to infinite precision. Reflecting this, here we investigate how to extend stochastic thermodynamics to systems with uncertain parameters, including…
Active matter generates order or patterns through nonequilibrium dynamics. An open research challenge is to determine how efficiently a nonequilibrium self-organising system can convert consumed energy into macroscopic order. We study an…