Abstract

Zoom link: https://maths-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/94018037756

Over last decades, substantial progress has been made towards the elaboration of a thermodynamic theory for systems on a mesoscopic scale, better known as stochastic thermodynamics. On such a scale, systems can be described by a large diversity of stochastic processes, including master equations, stochastic differential equations for individual Brownian particles or fluctuating hydrodynamics for continuous field variables. In this talk, I will present a recent, top-down approach to stochastic thermodynamics the eLEH stochastic thermodynamics particularly suited for systems described at the fluctuating hydrodynamics level of description. This approach can be applied to various physical phenomena: simple diffusive transport [1], coupled transport (thermodiffusion) [2], (non-)linear chemical reactions [3] and solutions of Brownian particles [4]. Going through analytical and numerical study of different toy-models for these phenomena, I will show how general properties of fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities can be drawn with this approach.

[1] Y. De Decker, A. Garcia Cantú Ros, and G. Nicolis, Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 224, 947 (2015) [2] J.-F. Derivaux and Y. D. Decker, J. Stat. Mech. Theory Exp. 2019, 034002 (2019) [3] Y. De Decker, J.-F. Derivaux, and G. Nicolis, Phys. Rev. E 93 , 042127 (2016) [4] G. Nicolis and Y. De Decker, Entropy 19, 434 (2017)