No Arabic abstract
We consider a macroscopic system in contact with boundary reservoirs and/or under the action of an external field. We discuss the case in which the external forcing depends explicitly on time and drives the system from a nonequilibrium state to another one. In this case the amount of energy dissipated along the transformation becomes infinite when an unbounded time window is considered. Following the general proposal by Oono and Paniconi and using results of the macroscopic fluctuation theory, we give a natural definition of a renormalized work. We then discuss its thermodynamic relevance by showing that it satisfies a Clausius inequality and that quasi static transformations minimize the renormalized work. In addition, we connect the renormalized work to the quasi potential describing the fluctuations in the stationary nonequilibrium ensemble. The latter result provides a characterization of the quasi potential that does not involve rare fluctuations.
We investigate the dynamics of single microparticles immersed in water that are driven out of equilibrium in the presence of an additional external colored noise. As a case study, we trap a single polystyrene particle in water with optical tweezers and apply an external electric field with flat spectrum but a finite bandwidth of the order of kHz. The intensity of the external noise controls the amplitude of the fluctuations of the position of the particle, and therefore of its effective temperature. Here we show, in two different nonequilibrium experiments, that the fluctuations of the work done on the particle obey Crooks fluctuation theorem at the equilibrium effective temperature, given that the sampling frequency and the noise cutoff frequency are properly chosen. Our experimental setup can be therefore used to improve the design of microscopic motors towards fast and efficient devices, thus extending the frontiers of nano machinery.
The main subject of the thesis is the study of stationary nonequilibrium states trough the use of microscopic stochastic models that encode the physical interaction in the rules of Markovian dynamics for particles configurations. These models are known as interacting particles systems and are simple enough to be treated analytically but also complex enough to capture essential physical behaviours. The thesis is organized in two parts. The part 1 is devoted to the microscopic theory of the stationary states. We characterize these states developing some general structures that have an interest in themselves. In this part there is an interlude dedicated to discrete calculus on discrete manifolds with an exposition a little bit different to the one available in literature and some original definitions. The part 2 studies the problem macroscopically. In particular we consider the large deviations asymptotic behavior for a class of solvable one dimensional models of heat conduction. Both part 1 and 2 begin with an introduction of motivational character followed by an overview of the relevant results and a summary explaining the organization. Even tough the two parts are strictly connected they can be read independently after chapter 1. The material is presented in such a way to be self-consistent as much as possible.
Many interesting phenomena in nature are described by stochastic processes with irreversible dynamics. To model these phenomena, we focus on a master equation or a Fokker-Planck equation with rates which violate detailed balance. When the system settles in a stationary state, it will be a nonequilibrium steady state (NESS), with time independent probability distribution as well as persistent probability current loops. The observable consequences of the latter are explored. In particular, cyclic behavior of some form must be present: some are prominent and manifest, while others are more obscure and subtle. We present a theoretical framework to analyze such properties, introducing the notion of probability angular momentum and its distribution. Using several examples, we illustrate the manifest and subtle categories and how best to distinguish between them. These techniques can be applied to reveal the NESS nature of a wide range of systems in a large variety of areas. We illustrate with one application: variability of ocean heat content in our climate system.
Laser technology has developed and accelerated photo-induced nonequilibrium physics from both scientific and engineering viewpoints. The Floquet engineering, i.e., controlling material properties and functionalities by time-periodic drives, is a forefront of quantum physics of light-matter interaction, but limited to ideal dissipationless systems. For the Floquet engineering extended to a variety of materials, it is vital to understand the quantum states emerging in a balance of the periodic drive and energy dissipation. Here we derive the general description for nonequilibrium steady states (NESS) in periodically driven dissipative systems by focusing on the systems under high-frequency drive and time-independent Lindblad-type dissipation with the detailed balance condition. Our formula correctly describes the time-average, fluctuation, and symmetry property of the NESS, and can be computed efficiently in numerical calculations. Our approach will play fundamental roles in Floquet engineering in a broad class of dissipative quantum systems such as atoms and molecules, mesoscopic systems, and condensed matter.
We study asymmetric exclusion processes (TASEP) on a nonuniform one-dimensional ring consisting of two segments having unequal hopping rates, or {em defects}. We allow weak particle nonconservation via Langmuir kinetics (LK), that are parameterised by generic unequal attachment and detachment rates. For an extended defect, in the thermodynamic limit the system generically displays inhomogeneous density profiles in the steady state - the faster segment is either in a phase with spatially varying density having no density discontinuity, or a phase with a discontinuous density changes. Nonequilibrium phase transitions between them are controlled by the inhomogeneity and LK. The slower segment displays only macroscopically uniform bulk density profiles in the steady states, reminiscent of the maximal current phase of TASEP but with a bulk density generally different from half. With a point defect, there are low and high density spatially uniform phases as well, in addition to the inhomogeneous density profiles observed for an extended defect. In all the cases, it is argued that the the mean particle density in the steady state is controlled only by the ratio of the LK attachment and detachment rates.