Massimiliano Esposito – University of Luxembourg
Wednesday, December 20th, 10:45AM EST (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT)
Macroscopic stochastic thermodynamics
Equilibrium thermodynamics emerges from equilibrium statistical mechanics as the most likely behavior of a system in the macroscopic limit. Over the last two decades, significant progress has been made in formulating statistical mechanics for small systems operating far-from-equilibrium. The resulting theory is often called stochastic thermodynamics. I will show that by taking the macroscopic limit of stochastic thermodynamics, one can formulate a nonequilibrium thermodynamics for large systems, typically described by nonlinear deterministic dynamics and macroscopic fluctuations around it [1]. This macroscopic stochastic thermodynamics gives rise to novel fundamental results. For instance, once can bound nonequilibrium steady state fluctuations using the entropy production along deterministic relaxation trajectories [2]. Many classical phenomenological results from macroscopic irreversible thermodynamics are also recovered within well controlled approximations. This theory opens the
way to study the energetics of many complex nonlinear phenomena in a broad range of systems, such as chemical reaction networks (CRNs), nonlinear electrical circuits, and Potts models.