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Advances in the fabrication and characterization of nanoscale systems now allow for a deeper understanding of one of the most basic issues in science and technology: the flow of energy at the microscopic level. In this Colloquium we survey…
The characterization and control of quantum effects in the performance of thermodynamic tasks may open new avenues for small thermal machines working in the nanoscale. We study the impact of coherence in the energy basis in the operation of…
Using information theory we derive a thermodynamics for systems evolving under a collective motion, i.e. under a time-odd constraint. An illustration within the Lattice gas Model is given for two model cases: a collision between two complex…
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…
Nonequilibrium thermodynamics of a system situated in a sustained environment with influx and efflux is usually treated as a subsystem in a larger, closed "universe". It remains a question what the minimally required description for the…
In systems with detailed balance, the stationary distribution and the equilibrium distribution are identical, creating a clear connection between energetic and entropic quantities. Many driven systems violate detailed balance and still pose…
Stochastic thermodynamics as reviewed here systematically provides a framework for extending the notions of classical thermodynamics like work, heat and entropy production to the level of individual trajectories of well-defined…
Energy conversion in nanosized devices is studied in the framework of state-space models. We use a network representation of the underlying master equation to describe the dynamics by a graph. Particular segments of this network represent…
The postulational basis of classical thermodynamics has been expanded to incorporate equilibrium fluctuations. The main additional elements of the proposed thermodynamic theory are the concept of quasi-equilibrium states, a definition of…
This mini-review is intended as a short introduction to electron flow in nanostructures. Its aim is to provide a brief overview of this topic for people who are interested in the thermodynamics of quantum systems but know little about…
Concepts of everyday use like energy, heat, and temperature have acquired a precise meaning after the development of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics provides the basis for understanding how heat and work are related and with the general…
In many far-from-equilibrium biological systems, energy injected by irreversible processes at microscopic scales propagates to larger scales to fulfill important biological functions. But given dissipative dynamics at the microscale, how…
The optimization of the conversion of thermal energy into work and the minimization of dissipation for nano- and mesoscopic systems is a complex challenge because of the important role fluctuations play on the dynamics of small systems. We…
Models of nonequilibrium quantum transport underpin all modern electronic devices, from the largest scales to the smallest. Past simplifications such as coarse graining and bulk self-averaging served well to understand electronic materials.…
Fluctuation theorems are fundamental extensions of the second law of thermodynamics for small nonequilibrium systems. While work and heat are equally important forms of energy exchange, fluctuation relations have not been experimentally…
Life is characterized by a myriad of complex dynamic processes allowing organisms to grow, reproduce, and evolve. Physical approaches for describing systems out of thermodynamic equilibrium have been increasingly applied to living systems,…
Maintained by environmental fluxes, biological systems are thermodynamic processes that operate far from equilibrium without detailed-balance dynamics. Yet, they often exhibit well defined nonequilibrium steady states (NESSs). More…
People are well aware that, inherently, certain small-scale nonchaotic particle movements are not governed by thermodynamics. Usually, such phenomena are studied by kinetic theory and their energy properties are considered "trivial". In…
Molecular machines composed of coupled subsystems transduce free energy between different external reservoirs, in the process internally transducing energy and information. While subsystem efficiencies of these molecular machines have been…
Experience collected in mesoscopic dynamic modeling of externally driven systems indicates absence of potentials that could play role of equilibrium or nonequilibrium thermodynamic potentials yet their thermo-dynamics-like modeling is often…