Foundations of Stochastic Thermodynamics
arXiv:1410.3983
Abstract
Small systems in a thermodynamic medium --- like colloids in a suspension or the molecular machinery in living cells --- are strongly affected by the thermal fluctuations of their environment. Physicists model such systems by means of stochastic processes. Stochastic Thermodynamics (ST) defines entropy changes and other thermodynamic notions for individual realizations of such processes. It applies to situations far from equilibrium and provides a unified approach to stochastic fluctuation relations. Its predictions have been studied and verified experimentally. This thesis addresses the theoretical foundations of ST. Its focus is on the following two aspects: (i) The stochastic nature of mesoscopic observations has its origin in the molecular chaos on the microscopic level. Can one derive ST from an underlying reversible deterministic dynamics? Can we interpret ST's notions of entropy and entropy changes in a well-defined information-theoretical framework? (ii) Markovian jump processes on finite state spaces are common models for bio-chemical pathways. How does one quantify and calculate fluctuations of physical observables in such models? What role does the topology of the network of states play? How can we apply our abstract results to the design of models for molecular motors? The thesis concludes with an outlook on dissipation as information written to unobserved degrees of freedom --- a perspective that yields a consistency criterion between dynamical models formulated on various levels of description.
arXiv commentPh.D. Thesis, Göttingen 2014, Keywords: Stochastic Thermodynamics, Entropy, Dissipation, Markov processes, Large Deviation Theory, Molecular Motors, Kinesin
References in corpus (43)
- Stochastic thermodynamics, fluctuation theorems, and molecular machines
- The Entropy Production Fluctuation Theorem and the Nonequilibrium Work Relation for Free Energy Differences
- The large deviation approach to statistical mechanics
- The holographic principle
- Entropy production along a stochastic trajectory and an integral fluctuation theorem
- Active Brownian Particles. From Individual to Collective Stochastic Dynamics
- Fluctuation theorem for stochastic dynamics
- Information heat engine: converting information to energy by feedback control
- Steady State Thermodynamics of Langevin Systems
- Efficiency at maximum power: An analytically solvable model for stochastic heat engines
- Generalized Jarzynski Equality under Nonequilibrium Feedback Control
- Stochastic thermodynamics: Principles and perspectives
- Computational Mechanics: Pattern and Prediction, Structure and Simplicity
- Universality of efficiency at maximum power
- Stochastic thermodynamics under coarse-graining
- A Dynamical Approach to Temperature
- The Three Faces of the Second Law: I. Master Equation Formulation
- Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Feedback Control
- The thermodynamics of prediction
- Stochastic thermodynamics of bipartite systems: transfer entropy inequalities and a Maxwell's demon interpretation
- Thermostats for "slow" configurational modes
- Thermodynamic costs of information processing in sensory adaption
- Efficiency of cellular information processing
- The noisy edge of traveling waves
- Chaotic Scattering Theory, Thermodynamic Formalism, and Transport Coefficients
- On the heat flux and entropy produced by thermal fluctuations
- Stochastic thermodynamics of single enzymes and molecular motors
- Dynamical Entropy Production in Spiking Neuron Networks in the Balanced State
- Kinetic vs. energetic discrimination in biological copying
- Distribution of Entropy Production for a Colloidal Particle in a Nonequilibrium Steady State
- Stochastic thermodynamics of active Brownian particles
- Fluctuation Theorem for Hidden Entropy Production
- What Is a Macrostate? Subjective Observations and Objective Dynamics
- Stochastically driven single level quantum dot: a nano-scale finite-time thermodynamic machine and its various operational modes
- Coarse graining of master equations with fast and slow states
- Chaos and reliability in balanced spiking networks with temporal drive
- A basic introduction to large deviations: Theory, applications, simulations
- Fluctuation preserving coarse graining for biochemical systems
- Network representations of non-equilibrium steady states: Cycle decompositions, symmetries and dominant paths
- Mesoscopic Full Counting Statistics and Exclusion models
- Notes on configurational thermostat schemes
- Of dice and men. Subjective priors, gauge invariance, and nonequilibrium thermodynamics
- Fluctuation Spectra and Coarse Graining in Stochastic Dynamics