Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 11: Focus Session: Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics of Small Systems

DY 11.4: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 11:45–12:15, HÜL 186

Efficiencies and fluctuations in small out-of-equilibrium devices — •Massimiliano Esposito — Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine CP 231, Brussels B-1050, Belgium.

Small systems undergo strong fluctuations and can easily be driven far from their thermodynamic equilibrium. A stochastic description of their dynamics combined with very few physical assumptions and the correct identification of entropy production provide a consistent nonequilibrium thermodynamic description of these small systems. I will show that such description enables the study of finite-time efficiencies and nonequilibrium fluctuations in various small devices such as thermoelectric quantum dots and photoelectric cells.