Are there Universal Laws in Non-Equilibrium Statistical Physics? [POSTPONED]

Europe/Stockholm
122:026 (Nordita, Stockholm)

122:026

Nordita, Stockholm

Astrid de Wijn (Stockholm University and NTNU), Bart Cleuren (Hasselt University), Ralf Eichhorn (Nordita), Supriya Krishnamurti (Stockholm University)
Description

Venue

Nordita, Stockholm, Sweden

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this program has been postponed by one year and will (most likely) take place in August/September 2021.

We will update this webpage (and re-open registration) as soon as the situation "clears up" and allows for more reliable planning.

 

Scope

Equilibrium statistical physics provides an extremely powerful, universal formalism that tells us how many-particle systems in thermal equilibrium behave, and how we can characterize their properties by only a few macroscopic quantities.

However, most systems and processes found in nature are out of equilibrium. Think of any living organism, or directed transport in cells mediated by molecular motors. On a more abstract level, the most important examples include systems in a non-equilibrium initial or transient state, systems which are driven away from equilibrium by externally imposed forces, gradients or other non-equilibrium sources, or systems which are maintained in a non-equilibrium steady state by perpetual energy conversion.

Often these systems consist of only a few entities and are so small that thermal fluctuations play a prominent role. It has been a vision from the early days of statistical mechanics to develop a theoretical description for such small non-equilibrium systems that is comparably powerful and universal as is equilibrium statistical physics.

In recent years a number of new ideas and approaches in this direction, such as largedeviation theory, non-equilibrium phase transitions, and stochastic thermodynamics, have led to the first discoveries of exact relations characterizing universal properties of small non-equilibrium systems, which are valid beyond linear response.

The aim of this program is to bring together the leading experts in (non-equilibrium) statistical physics to critically discuss and evaluate the latest developments towards a universal theory for non-equilibrium systems.

 

Registration for the program is closed temporarily and will be re-opened in 2021

(use the link below or in the menu to the left)

 

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