Research theme 01

Stochastic thermodynamics

Irreversibility, frenesy, and response in nonequilibrium stochastic systems.

Overview

This research direction focuses on the study of systems out of equilibrium. A recent line concerns the thermodynamic interpretation of stochastic dynamics [dit24,bai24]. The central goal is to connect measurable trajectories, currents and fluctuations with quantities such as entropy production and dissipation.

However, in nonequilibrium systems, in addition to dissipation, time-symmetric features become relevant (traffic, frenesy, dynamical activity, ...). This focus led to the so-called kinetic uncertainty relation [dit19], which is an inequality constraining the precision of observables by the system's average jumping rate.

This research line also included the study of various forms of fluctuation-response relations for systems out of equilibrium (see the review [bai13]).

The approach combines tools from statistical mechanics, stochastic processes and numerical modelling, with applications to driven systems, active matter and complex nonequilibrium dynamics.

Selected papers

[dit24] Variance sum rule for entropy production

I. Di Terlizzi, M. Gironella, D. Herraez-Aguilar, T. Betz, F. Monroy, M. Baiesi, and F. Ritort,
Science 383, 971-976 (2024)

Estimating dissipation with a novel approach based on fluctuations.

Link

[bai24] Effective estimation of entropy production with lacking data

M Baiesi, T Nishiyama, G Falasco
Communications Physics 7 264 (2024)

Improving the estimation of strong irreversibility with lower bounds.

Link

[dit19] Kinetic Uncertainty Relation

Ivan Di Terlizzi and Marco Baiesi
J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 52, 02LT03 (2019)

Nonequilibrium inequality known as the "KUR", which complements the "TUR" (Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relation) in bounding the precision of observables in stochastic systems out of equilibrium.

Link

PDF

[bai13] An update on nonequilibrium linear response

M. Baiesi and C. Maes,
New Journal of Physics 15, 013004 (2013).

A review of the approaches to linear response for nonequilibrium systems.

Link