Название: An Introduction to Stochastic Thermodynamics: From Basic to Advanced
Автор: Naoto Shiraishi
Издательство: Springer
Год: 2023
Страниц: 437
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), epub
Размер: 31.0 MB

This book presents the fundamentals of stochastic thermodynamics, one of the most central subjects in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. It also explores many recent advances, e.g., in information thermodynamics, the thermodynamic uncertainty relation, and the trade-off relation between efficiency and power.

The content is divided into three main parts, the first of which introduces readers to fundamental topics in stochastic thermodynamics, e.g., the basics of stochastic processes, the fluctuation theorem and its variants, information thermodynamics, and large deviation theory. In turn, parts two and three explore advanced topics such as autonomous engines (engines not controlled externally) and finite speed engines, while also explaining the key concepts from recent stochastic thermodynamics theory that are involved.

To fully benefit from the book, readers only need an undergraduate-level background in statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics; no background in information theory or stochastic processes is needed. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable resource for early graduate or higher-level readers who are unfamiliar with this subject but want to keep up with the cutting-edge research in this field. In addition, the author’s vivid descriptions interspersed throughout the book will help readers grasp ‘living’ research developments and begin their own research in this field.

In the past three decades, the field of stochastic thermodynamics has been formulated and highly developed. Stochastic thermodynamics extends the framework of thermodynamics, which is aimed to macroscopic objects, to small fluctuating systems including Brownian particles in the laser trap and molecular motors in living systems. Improvements in experiments enable us to control these small systems accurately, which have pushed further developments of stochastic thermodynamics.

In conventional thermodynamics for macroscopic systems, the entropy is a key quantity, which characterizes the irreversibility of processes. Several relations on entropy and other related quantities are proved in the form of inequalities, such as the second law of thermodynamics. In stochastic thermodynamics, we define entropy production, which characterizes the irreversibility of processes in small systems. Unlike conventional thermodynamics, entropy production satisfies not only inequalities but also equalities in highly nonequilibrium conditions. Celebrated examples are the fluctuation theorem and the Jarzynski equality, taking an impressive exponential forms. These equalities revealed a hidden symmetric structure of entropy, which sheds new light on thermodynamic irreversibility.

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