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The laws of thermodynamics, despite their wide range of applicability, are known to break down when systems are correlated with their environments. Here, we generalize thermodynamics to physical scenarios which allow presence of…

Starting at the mesoscopic level with a general formulation of stochastic thermodynamics in terms of Markov jump processes, we identify the scaling conditions that ensure the emergence of a (typically nonlinear) deterministic dynamics and…

We analyze the behavior of a network of quantum oscillators coupled with a number of external environments. We show that the dynamics is such that the quantum state of the network always obeys a local master equation with a simple…

The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy production in macroscopic systems is non-negative, reaching zero only at thermodynamic equilibrium. As a corollary, this implies that the state trajectory of macroscopic systems is…

We use rigorous non-equilibrium thermodynamic arguments to prove (i) the residual entropy of any system is bounded below by the experimentally (calorimetrically) determined absolute temperature entropy, which itself is bounded below by the…

The evolution of entropy is derived with respect to dynamical systems. For a stochastic system, its relative entropy $D$ evolves in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics; its absolute entropy $H$ may also be so, provided that the…

Living systems maintain or increase local order by working against the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Thermodynamic consistency is restored as they dissipate heat, thereby increasing the net entropy of their environment. Recently introduced…

For a circuit made of thermodynamic devices in stationary nonequilibrium, we determine the mean currents (of energy, matter, charge, etc) exchanged with external reservoirs driving the circuit out of equilibrium. Starting from the…

We extend stochastic thermodynamics by relaxing the two assumptions that the Markovian dynamics must be linear and that the equilibrium distribution must be a Boltzmann distribution. We show that if we require the second law to hold when…

Physical devices operating out of equilibrium are inherently affected by thermal fluctuations, limiting their operational precision. This issue is pronounced at microscopic and especially quantum scales and can only be mitigated by…

The Second Law of Thermodynamics asserts that the physical entropy of an adiabatic system is an increasing function in time. In this paper we will study a more stringent version of this law, according to which the entropy should not only…

A generally relativistic theory of thermodynamics is developed, based on four main physical principles: heat is a local form of energy, therefore described by a thermal energy tensor; conservation of mass, equivalent to conservation of…

The second entropy theory for non-equilibrium thermodynamics is used to show that the optimum structure or pattern of a time-dependent system corresponds to the maximum entropy. A formula for the total entropy of convective heat flow is…

As remarked by Boltzmann, the Second Law of Thermodynamics is notable for the fact that it is readily proved using elementary statistical arguments, but becomes harder and harder to verify the more precise the microscopic description of a…

We give the explicit structure of the functional governing the dynamical density and current fluctuations for a mesoscopic system in a nonequilibrium steady state. Its canonical form determines a generalised Onsager-Machlup theory. We…

This article is a short version of a longer article to appear in Physics Reports (cond-mat/9708200). The essential postulates of classical thermodynamics are formulated, from which the second law is deduced as the principle of increase of…

The validity of the Second Law of thermodynamics, indisputable in the macroscopic world, is challenged at the mesoscopic level: a mesoscopic isolated system, possessing spatial dimensions of the order of a few microns, is capable, as shown…

Onsager's variational principle is generalized to address the diffusive dynamics of an electrolyte solution composed of charge-regulated macro-ions and counterions. The free energy entering the Rayleighian corresponds to the…

The essential postulates of classical thermodynamics are formulated, from which the second law is deduced as the principle of increase of entropy in irreversible adiabatic processes that take one equilibrium state to another. The entropy…

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…