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Life has most likely originated as a consequence of processes taking place in non-equilibrium conditions (textit{e.g.} in the proximity of deep-sea thermal vents) selecting states of matter that would have been otherwise unfavorable at equilibrium. Here we present a simple chemical network in which the selection of states is driven by the thermodynamic necessity of dissipating heat as rapidly as possible in the presence of a thermal gradient: states participating to faster reactions contribute the most to the dissipation rate, and are the most populated ones in non-equilibrium steady-state conditions. Building upon these results, we show that, as the complexity of the chemical network increases, the textit{velocity} of the reaction path leading to a given state determines its selection, giving rise to non-trivial localization phenomena in state space. A byproduct of our studies is that, in the presence of a temperature gradient, thermophoresis-like behavior inevitably appears depending on the transport properties of each individual state, thus hinting at a possible microscopic explanation of this intriguing yet still not fully understood phenomenon.
We develop a thermodynamic framework for closed and open chemical networks applicable to non-elementary reactions that do not need to obey mass action kinetics. It only requires the knowledge of the kinetics and of the standard chemical potentials, a
When exposed to a thermal gradient, reaction networks can convert thermal energy into the chemical selection of states that would be unfavourable at equilibrium. The kinetics of reaction paths, and thus how fast they dissipate available energy, might
We review generalized Fluctuation-Dissipation Relations which are valid under general conditions even in ``non-standard systems, e.g. out of equilibrium and/or without a Hamiltonian structure. The response functions can be expressed in terms of suita
Homochirality, i.e. the dominance across all living matter of one enantiomer over the other among chiral molecules, is thought to be a key step in the emergence of life. Building on ideas put forward by Frank and many others, we proposed recently one
We extend certain basic and general concepts of thermodynamics to discrete Markov systems exchanging work and heat with reservoirs. In this framework we show that the celebrated Clausius inequality can be generalized and becomes an equality, signific