http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
Irreversibility and Dissipation in Microscopic Systems
XXI, 211 p. 75 illus., 41 illus. in color. online resource.
After an insightful introductory part on recent developments in the thermodynamics of small systems, the author presents his contribution to a long-standing problem, namely the connection between irreversibility and dissipation. He develops a method based on recent results on fluctuation theorems that is able to estimate dissipation using only information acquired in a single, sufficiently long, trajectory of a stationary nonequilibrium process. This part ends with a remarkable application of the method to the analysis of biological data, in this case, the fluctuations of a hair bundle. The third part studies the energetics of systems that undergo symmetry breaking transitions. These theoretical ideas lead to, among other things, an experimental realization of a Szilard engine using manipulated colloids. This work has the potential for important applications ranging from the analysis of biological media to the design of novel artificial nano-machines.
Introduction -- Small-scale thermodynamics -- Irreversibility and dissipation -- Dissipation and kullback-leibler divergence -- Estimating the kullback-leibler divergence -- A case study: the flashing ratchet -- Application to biology: the ear hair bundle -- Experimental tests and applications of stochastic Thermodynamics -- Energetics of symmetry breaking -- Effective heating with random forces -- Conclusions -- Conclusions and outlook.
Statistical Physics, Dynamical Systems and Complexity
Phase Transitions and Multiphase Systems
Springer Theses, Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research