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Simulations at the atomic scale provide a direct and effective way to understand the mechanical properties of materials. In the regime of classical mechanics, simulations for the thermodynamic properties of metals and alloys can be done by…
Engines are open systems that can generate work cyclically, at the expense of an external disequilibrium. They are ubiquitous in nature and technology, but the course of mathematical physics over the last 300 years has tended to make their…
We explore the prospects to control by use of time-dependent fields quantum transport phenomena in nanoscale systems. In particular, we study for driven conductors the electron current and its noise properties. We review recent…
Torque is ubiquitous in many molecular systems, including collisions, chemical reactions, vibrations, electronic excitations and especially rotor molecules. We present a straightforward theoretical method based on forces acting on atoms and…
Many biological functions are executed by molecular machines, which consume energy and convert it into mechanical work. Biological machines have evolved to transport cargo, facilitate folding of proteins and RNA, remodel chromatin and…
Using the Hamiltonian formulation, we have attempted to obtain the equations of motion of systems with internal angular momentum that are moving with respect to a reference system when subjected to an interaction. This interaction involves…
Atomistic modelling of magnetic materials provides unprecedented detail about the underlying physical processes that govern their macroscopic properties, and allows the simulation of complex effects such as surface anisotropy, ultrafast…
An equilibrium reversible cycle with a certain engine to transduce the energy of any chemical reaction into mechanical energy is proposed. The efficiency for chemical energy transduction is also defined so as to be compared with Carnot…
Chemical gradients provide the primordial energy for biological functions by driving the mechanical movement of microscopic engines. Their thermodynamic properties remain elusive, especially concerning the dynamic change in energy demand in…
Understanding the dynamical processes that govern the performance of functional materials is essential for the design of next generation materials to tackle global energy and environmental challenges. Many of these processes involve the…
Energy exchanges under form of heat is neither the most natural or efficient way to operate an engine in the quantum realm. Recently there have been in the literature several proposals for "quantum measurement engines" where energy is fed…
The quantum mechanics of a simple mechanical system is considered. A group of gears can serve as a model for several different systems such as an artifically constructed nanomechanical device or a group of ring molecules. It is shown that…
User-driven applications belong to the new type of programs, in which users get the full control of WHAT, WHEN, and HOW must appear on the screen. Such programs can exist only if the screen view is organized not according with the…
We propose a two-dimensional model for a complete description of the dynamics of molecular motors, including both the processive movement along track filaments and the dissociation from the filaments. The theoretical results on the…
We introduce a system of light driven microscopic autonomous moving particles that move on a flat surface. The design is simple, yet effective: Micrometer sized objects with wedge shape are produced by photopolymerization, they are covered…
We consider in this paper a solvable model for the motion of molecular motors. Based on the averaging principle, we reduce the problem to a diffusion process on a graph. We then calculate the effective speed of transportation of these…
Particle accelerators represent some of the most sophisticated engineering achievements of our time. Their construction requires a unique combination of physics insight and mechanical engineering expertise. The aim of this paper is to…
By applying invariant-based inverse engineering in the small-oscillations regime, we design the time dependence of the control parameters of an overhead crane (trolley displacement and rope length), to transport a load between two positions…
A molecular motor is made of either a single macromolecule or a macromolecular complex. Just like their macroscopic counterparts, molecular motors "transduce" input energy into mechanical work. All the nano-motors considered here operate…
Low-dimensional metal complexes are versatile materials with tunable physical and chemical properties that make these systems promising platforms for caloric applications. In this context, this work proposes a quantum Stirling cycle based…