相关论文: Theory of non-equilibrium thermoelectric effects i…

Focus of the chapter is on the theoretical approaches aimed to analyze thermoelectric properties at the nanoscale. We discuss several relevant theoretical approaches for different set-ups of nano-devices providing estimations of the…

Thermodynamic principles are often deceptively simple and yet surprisingly powerful. We show how a simple rule, such as the net flow of energy in and out of a moving atom under nonequilibrium steady state condition, can expose the…

It is known that temperature estimates of macroscopic systems in equilibrium are most precise when their energy fluctuations are large. However, for nanoscale systems deviations from standard thermodynamics arise due to their interactions…

We discuss the non-equilibrium critical phenomena in liquids, and the models for these phenomena based on local equilibrium and extended scaling assumptions. Special situations are proposed for experimental tests of the theory.…

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics has shown its applicability in a wide variety of different situations pertaining to fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. As successful as it is, however, its current formulation…

Besides the growing interest in old concepts like temperature and entropy at the nanoscale, theories of relaxation and transport have recently regained a lot of attention. With the electronic circuits and computer chips getting smaller and…

We consider a question motivated by the third law of thermodynamics: can there be a local temperature arbitrarily close to absolute zero in a nonequilibrium quantum system? We consider nanoscale quantum conductors with the source reservoir…

We investigate the stationary nonequilibrium states of a quasi one-dimensional system of heavy particles whose interaction is mediated by purely elastic collisions with light particles, in contact at the boundary with two heat baths with…

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 microscopic origins of Fourier's venerable law of thermal transport in quantum electron systems has remained somewhat of a mystery, given that previous derivations were forced to invoke intrinsic scattering rates far exceeding those…

Thermoelectricity in superconducting tunnel junctions has always been studied under the hypothesis of equilibrium between the cold side and the thermal bath, usually in the linear regime. We define a more complete out-of-equilibrium…

We develop an exact quantum thermodynamic description for a noninteracting nanoscale steady state that couples strongly with multiple reservoirs. It is demonstrated that there exists a steady-state extension of the thermodynamic function…

The theory of open quantum systems is used to study the local temperature and heat currents in metallic nanowires connected to leads at different temperatures. We show that for ballistic wires the local temperature is almost uniform along…

Fluctuation theorems are a generalization of thermodynamics on small scales and provide the tools to characterize the fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities in non-equilibrium nanoscale systems. They are particularly important for…

I consider the non-equilibrium DC transport of electrons through a quantum system with a thermoelectric response. This system may be any nanostructure or molecule modeled by the nonlinear scattering theory which includes Hartree-like…

Small thermodynamic systems exhibit peculiar behavior different from that observed in long-scale systems. Non-equilibrium processes taking place in those systems are strongly influenced by the presence of fluctuations which can be large.…

A nanowire with its two ends fixed at two different temperatures by external baths is the simplest example of a fermionic system with a temperature inhomogeneity, and could be an easy platform to study thermodynamic and transport properties…

In the last ten years, a number of ``Conventional Fluctuation Theorems'' have been derived for systems with deterministic or stochastic dynamics, in a transient or in a non-equilibrium stationary state. These theorems gave explicit…

We study two small quantum systems coupled to the same reservoir which is in thermal equilibrium. By studying the particle density and the energy density in the two systems before and after they contact each other, we find that the two…

Classical thermodynamics is built with the concept of equilibrium states. However, it is less clear how equilibrium thermodynamics emerges through the dynamics that follows the principle of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we develop a…