Related papers: Thermal and mechanical equilibrium among weakly in…

We study a class of non-equilibrium quasi-stationary states for a Markov system interacting with two different thermal baths. We show that the work done under a slow, external change of parameters admits a potential, i.e., the free energy.…

To understand under which conditions thermodynamics emerges from the microscopic dynamics is the ultimate goal of statistical mechanics. Despite the fact that the theory is more than 100 years old, we are still discussing its foundations…

Thermal contact is the archetype of non-equilibrium processes driven by constant non-equilibrium constraints enforced by reservoirs exchanging conserved microscopic quantities. In models with a finite number of possible configurations, if…

Thermodynamics can be formulated in either of two approaches, the phenomenological approach, which refers to the macroscopic properties of systems, and the statistical approach, which describes systems in terms of their microscopic…

Multistable non-equilibrium systems are abundant outcomes of nonlinear dynamics with feedback but still relatively little is known about what determines the stability of the steady states and their switching rates in terms of entropy and…

An adiabatic transition between two equilibrium states corresponding to different stiffnesses in an infinite chain of particles is studied. Initially, the chain particles have random displacements and random velocities corresponding to a…

Thermodynamics is commonly presented as a theory of macroscopic systems in stable equilibrium, built upon assumptions of extensivity and scaling with system size. In this paper, we present a universal formulation of the elementary…

In their seminal work, Fermi, Pasta, Ulam and Tsingou explored the connection between statistical mechanics and dynamical properties, such as chaos and ergodicity. Even today, seventy years later, the topic is not fully understood: while…

The interactions of tiny objects with their environment are dominated by thermal fluctuations. Guided by theory and assisted by micromanipulation tools, scientists have begun to study such interactions in detail.

Microcanonical thermodynamics allows the application of statistical mechanics both to finite and even small systems and also to the largest, self-gravitating ones. However, one must reconsider the fundamental principles of statistical…

The mathematical physics of mechanical systems in thermal equilibrium is a well studied, and relatively easy, subject, because the Gibbs distribution is in general an adequate guess for the equilibrium state. On the other hand, the…

We show that, in nonequilibrium systems with small heat flows, there is a time-scale dependent effective temperature which plays the same role as the thermodynamical temperature, in that it controls the direction of heat flows and acts as a…

Describing open quantum systems far from equilibrium is challenging, in particular when the environment is mesoscopic, when it develops nonequilibrium features during the evolution, or when the memory effects cannot be disregarded. Here, we…

The experimental time scale dependence of thermodynamic relations in out-of-equilibrium systems with aging phenomena is investigated theoretically by using only aging properties of the two-time correlation functions and the generalized…

For the system with inhomogeneous distribution of macroscopic parameters we obtain thermodynamic relation which depends on the spatial point (coordinate). In our approach, to obtain such a relation we use the basic ideas of the method of…

Thermodynamics have been applied to astronomy, biology, psychology, some social systems and so on. But, various evolutions from astronomy to biology and social systems cannot be only increase of entropy. When fluctuations are magnified due…

Physical systems that power motion and create structure in a fixed amount of time dissipate energy and produce entropy. Whether living or synthetic, systems performing these dynamic functions must balance dissipation and speed. Here, we…

We study a two dimensional Ising model between thermostats at different temperatures. By applying the recently introduced KQ dynamics, we show that the system reaches a steady state with coexisting phases transversal to the heat flow. The…

The present paper studies a large class of temperature dependent probability distributions and shows that entropy and energy can be defined in such a way that these probability distributions are the equilibrium states of a generalized…

The thermodynamic equilibrium states of a static thin ring shell in a (2+1)-dimensional flat spacetime is analyzed. Inside the ring the spacetime is flat, whereas outside it is conical flat. The first law of thermodynamics applied to the…