Irreversibility and Dissipation in Microscopic Systems

• Main Author: Roldán, Édgar (Author)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2014.
• Series: Springer Theses, Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research,
• Subjects: Physics.; Thermodynamics.; Phase transitions (Statistical physics).; Biophysics.; Biological physics.; Statistical physics.; Dynamical systems.; Statistical Physics, Dynamical Systems and Complexity.; Phase Transitions and Multiphase Systems.; Biophysics and Biological Physics.

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 th...

Table of Contents:

• 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.