Overview
- Nominated as an outstanding Ph.D. thesis by the Complutense University of Madrid
- A guide to understanding time irreversibility and how it can be quantified in stationary processes
- Develops techniques to estimate the dissipation rate in biological processes from single stationary trajectories
- Serves as a guide to estimate the Kullback-Leibler divergence between two probability distributions (discrete or continuous)
- Describes experimental measurement of the energetics of symmetry breaking
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Springer Theses (Springer Theses)
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About this book
After an insightful introductory part on recent developments in the thermodynamics of small systems, the author presents his contribution to a long-standing problem, namely the connection between irreversibility and dissipation. He develops a method based on recent results on fluctuation theorems that is able to estimate dissipation using only information acquired in a single, sufficiently long, trajectory of a stationary nonequilibrium process. This part ends with a remarkable application of the method to the analysis of biological data, in this case, the fluctuations of a hair bundle.
The third part studies the energetics of systems that undergo symmetry breaking transitions. These theoretical ideas lead to, among other things, an experimental realization of a Szilard engine using manipulated colloids.
This work has the potential for important applications ranging from the analysis of biological media to the design of novel artificial nano-machines.
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Introduction
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Front Matter
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Irreversibility and Dissipation
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Front Matter
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Experimental Tests and Applications of Stochastic Thermodynamics
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Front Matter
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Conclusions
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Irreversibility and Dissipation in Microscopic Systems
Authors: Édgar Roldán
Series Title: Springer Theses
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07079-7
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-07078-0Published: 01 July 2014
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-38384-2Published: 17 September 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-07079-7Published: 13 June 2014
Series ISSN: 2190-5053
Series E-ISSN: 2190-5061
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 211
Number of Illustrations: 34 b/w illustrations, 41 illustrations in colour
Topics: Thermodynamics, Complex Systems, Phase Transitions and Multiphase Systems, Biological and Medical Physics, Biophysics, Statistical Physics and Dynamical Systems