Related papers: Driving rapidly while remaining in control: classi…
Quantum dynamics of driven open systems should be compatible with both quantum mechanic and thermodynamic principles. By formulating the thermodynamic principles in terms of a set of postulates we obtain a thermodynamically consistent…
The nature of the behaviour of an isolated many-body quantum system periodically driven in time has been an open question since the beginning of quantum mechanics. After an initial transient, such a system is known to synchronize with the…
The optimal control problem of stochastic systems is commonly solved via robust or scenario-based optimization methods, which are both challenging to scale to long optimization horizons. We cast the optimal control problem of a stochastic…
Many dynamical systems consist of multiple, co-evolving subsystems (degrees of freedom). These subsystems often depend upon each other in a way that restricts the overall system's dynamics. How does this network of dependencies affect the…
Stochastic efficiency is evaluated in five case studies: driven Brownian motion, effusion with a thermo-chemical and thermo-velocity gradient, a quantum dot and a model for information to work conversion. The salient features of stochastic…
This report provides a description of unbunched beam stochastic cooling in the framework of control theory. The main interest in the investigation is concentrated on the beam stability in an active cooling system. A stochastic cooling…
We study the thermodynamic properties of a microscopic model of coupled oscillators that exhibits a dynamical phase transition from a desynchronized to a synchronized phase. We consider two different configurations for the thermodynamic…
Equilibrium statistical mechanics is intended to link the microscopic dynamics of particles to the thermodynamic laws for macroscopic quantities. However, the modern statistical theory is faced with significant difficulties, as applied to…
Thermodynamic speed limits are a set of classical uncertainty relations that, so far, place global bounds on the stochastic dissipation of energy as heat and the production of entropy. Here, instead of constraints on these thermodynamic…
We give the solution to the minimum-energy control problem for linear stochastic systems. The problem is as follows: given an exactly controllable system, find the control process with the minimum expected energy that transfers the system…
Within the last decade, experimentalists have demonstrated their impressive ability to control mechanical modes within mesoscopic objects down to the quantum level: it is now possible to create mechanical Fock states, to entangle mechanical…
This work addresses stochastic optimal control problems where the unknown state evolves in continuous time while partial, noisy, and possibly controllable measurements are only available in discrete time. We develop a framework for…
The study of density-dependent stochastic population processes is important from a historical perspective as well as from the perspective of a number of existing and emerging applications today. In more recent applications of these…
Recent advances in experimental control of colloidal systems have spurred a revolution in the production of mesoscale thermodynamic devices. Functional "textbook" engines, such as the Stirling and Carnot cycles, have been produced in…
Shortcuts to isothermality provide a powerful method to speed up quasistatic thermodynamic processes within finite-time manipulation. We employ the shortcut strategy to design and optimize Brownian heat engines, and formulate a geometric…
This paper considers the relaxed version of the transport problem for general nonlinear control systems, where the objective is to design time-varying feedback laws that transport a given initial probability measure to a target probability…
This paper is concerned with optimal control problems for systems governed by mean-field stochastic differential equation, in which the control enters both the drift and the diffusion coefficient. We prove that the relaxed state process,…
We describe a symplectic approach towards thermodynamics in which thermodynamic transformations are described by (symplectic) Hamiltonian dynamics. Upon identifying the spaces of equilibrium states with Lagrangian submanifolds of a…
This thesis is devoted to the theoretical study of slow thermodynamic processes in non-equilibrium stochastic systems. Its main result is a physically and mathematically consistent construction of relevant thermodynamic quantities in the…
Sample-based trajectory optimisers are a promising tool for the control of robotics with non-differentiable dynamics and cost functions. Contemporary approaches derive from a restricted subclass of stochastic optimal control where the…