Contributor info: Mr Alberto Garilli

Francesco Avanzini, Massimo Bilancioni, Vasco Cavina, Sara Dal Cengio, Massimiliano Esposito, Gianmaria Falasco, Danilo Forastiere, Nahuel Freitas, Alberto Garilli, Pedro E. Harunari, Vivien Lecomte, Alexandre Lazarescu, Shesha G. Marehalli Srinivas, Charles Moslonka, Izaak Neri, Emanuele Penocchio, William D. Piñeros, Matteo Polettini, Adarsh Raghu, Paul Raux, Ken Sekimoto, Ariane Soret

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 80 (2024) · published 20 March 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Lecture notes after the doctoral school (Post)Modern Thermodynamics held at the University of Luxembourg, December 2022, 5-7, covering and advancing continuous-time Markov chains, network theory, stochastic thermodynamics, large deviations, deterministic and stochastic chemical reaction networks, metastability, martingales, quantum thermodynamics, and foundational issues.

Matteo Polettini, Alberto Garilli

SciPost Phys. 9, 030 (2020) · published 2 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We derive an expression for the minimal rate of entropy that sustains two reservoirs at different temperatures $T_0$ and $T_\ell$. The law displays an intuitive $\ell^{-1}$ dependency on the relative distance and a characterisic $\log^2 (T_\ell/T_0)$ dependency on the boundary temperatures. First we give a back-of-envelope argument based on the Fourier Law (FL) of conduction, showing that the least-dissipation profile is exponential. Then we revisit a model of a chain of oscillators, each coupled to a heat reservoir. In the limit of large damping we reobtain the exponential and squared-log behaviors, providing a self-consistent derivation of the FL. For small damping "equipartition frustration" leads to a well-known balistic behaviour, whose incompatibility with the FL posed a long-time challenge.