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In addition to providing general constraints on probability distributions, fluctuation theorems allow us to infer essential information on the role played by temperature in heat exchange phenomena. In this numerical study, we measure the temperature of an out-of-equilibrium active bath using a fluctuation theorem that relates the fluctuations in the heat exchanged between two baths to their temperatures. Our setup consists of a single particle moving between two wells of a quartic potential accommodating two different baths. The heat exchanged between the two baths is monitored according to two definitions: as the kinetic energy carried by the particle whenever it jumps from one well to the other and as the work performed by the particle on one of the two baths when immersed in it. First, we consider two equilibrium baths at two different temperatures and verify that a fluctuation theorem featuring the baths temperatures holds for both heat definitions. Then, we introduce an additional Gaussian coloured noise in one of the baths, so as to make it effectively an active (out-of-equilibrium) bath. We find that a fluctuation theorem is still satisfied with both heat definitions. Interestingly, in this case the temperature obtained through the fluctuation theorem for the active bath corresponds to the kinetic temperature when considering the first heat definition, while it is larger with the second one. We interpret these results by looking at the particle jump phenomenology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advancements in information thermodynamics have revealed that information can be directly converted into mechanical work. Specifically, RNA transcription and nanopore sequencing serve as prime examples of this conversion, by reading information from a DNA template. This paper introduces an information thermodynamic model in which these molecular motors can move along the DNA template by converting the information read from the template DNA into their own motion. This process is a stochastic one, characterized by significant fluctuations in forward movement and is described by the Fokker–Planck equation, based on drift velocity and diffusion coefficients. In the current study, it is hypothesized that by utilizing the sequence information of the template DNA as mutual information, the fluctuations can be reduced, thereby biasing the forward movement on DNA and, consequently, reducing reading errors. Further research into the conversion of biological information by molecular motors could unveil new applications, insights, and important findings regarding the characteristics of information processing in biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adaptive and surprising emergent properties of biological materials self-assembled in far-from-equilibrium environments serve as an inspiration for efforts to design nanomaterials. In particular, controlling the conditions of self-assembly can modulate material properties, but there is no systematic understanding of either how to parameterize external control or how controllable a given material can be. Here, we demonstrate that branched actin networks can be encoded with metamaterial properties by dynamically controlling the applied force under which they grow and that the protocols can be selected using multi-task reinforcement learning. These actin networks have tunable responses over a large dynamic range depending on the chosen external protocol, providing a pathway to encoding "memory" within these structures. Interestingly, we obtain a bound that relates the dissipation rate and the rate of "encoding" that gives insight into the constraints on control--both physical and information theoretical. Taken together, these results emphasize the utility and necessity of nonequilibrium control for designing self-assembled nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plastic deformation of almost all solid polymers can be represented by a thermally activated rate process involving the motion of cooperative mobile elements over potential barriers, based on the Eyring activated rate theory. The present study shows that the governing equations for the Eyring rate theory can be completely derived based on the principle of microscopic reversibility in the framework of non-equilibrium dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex systems can convert energy imparted by nonequilibrium forces to regulate how quickly they transition between long-lived states. While such behavior is ubiquitous in natural and synthetic systems, currently there is no general framework to relate the enhancement of a transition rate to the energy dissipated or to bound the enhancement achievable for a given energy expenditure. We employ recent advances in stochastic thermodynamics to build such a framework, which can be used to gain mechanistic insight into transitions far from equilibrium. We show that under general conditions, there is a basic speed limit relating the typical excess heat dissipated throughout a transition and the rate amplification achievable. We illustrate this tradeoff in canonical examples of diffusive barrier crossings in systems driven with autonomous and deterministic external forcing protocols. In both cases, we find that our speed limit tightly constrains the rate enhancement.

The review provides a pedagogical but comprehensive introduction to the foundations of a recently proposed statistical mechanics (μ NEQT) of a stable nonequilibrium thermodynamic body, which may be either isolated or interacting. It is an extension of the well-established equilibrium statistical mechanics by considering microstates m k in an extended state space in which macrostates (obtained by ensemble averaging A ^ ) are uniquely specified so they share many properties of stable equilibrium macrostates. The extension requires an appropriate extended state space, three distinct infinitessimals d α = (d , d e , d i) operating on various quantities q during a process, and the concept of reduction. The mechanical process quantities (no stochasticity) like macrowork are given by A ^ d α q , but the stochastic quantities C ^ α q like macroheat emerge from the commutator C ^ α of d α and A ^ . Under the very common assumptions of quasi-additivity and quasi-independence, exchange microquantities d e q k such as exchange microwork and microheat become nonfluctuating over m k as will be explained, a fact that does not seem to have been appreciated so far in diverse branches of modern statistical thermodynamics (fluctuation theorems, quantum thermodynamics, stochastic thermodynamics, etc.) that all use exchange quantities. In contrast, dq k and d i q k are always fluctuating. There is no analog of the first law for a microstate as the latter is a purely mechanical construct. The second law emerges as a consequence of the stability of the system, and cannot be violated unless stability is abandoned. There is also an important thermodynamic identity  d i Q ≡ d i W   ≥   0 with important physical implications as it generalizes the well-known result of Count Rumford and the Gouy-Stodola theorem of classical thermodynamics. The μ NEQT has far-reaching consequences with new results, and presents a new understanding of thermodynamics even of an isolated system at the microstate level, which has been an unsolved problem. We end the review by applying it to three different problems of fundamental interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We establish a fluctuation theorem for an open quantum bipartite system that explicitly manifests the role played by quantum correlation. Generally quantum correlations may substantially modify the universality of classical thermodynamic relations in composite systems. Our fluctuation theorem finds a non-equilibrium parameter of genuinely quantum nature that sheds light on the emerging quantum information thermodynamics. Specifically we show that the statistics of quantum correlation fluctuation obtained in a time-reversed process can provide a useful insight into addressing work and heat in the resulting thermodynamic evolution. We illustrate these quantum thermodynamic relations by two examples of quantum correlated systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new type of symmetry in the large deviation function of a time-integrated current is introduced. This current is different from the fluctuating entropy production for which the large deviation function is symmetric in the content of the fluctuation theorem. The origin of this symmetry, similar to that of the Gallavotti-Cohen-Evans-Morriss symmetry, is related to time-reversal. The symmetry is more unveiled when one performs an appropriate grouping of stochastic trajectories in the space of microscopic configurations. It turns out that the characteristic polynomial of the modified generator of this current is not symmetric; however, its minimum eigenvalue is symmetric.

Maintained by environmental fluxes, biological systems are thermodynamic processes that operate far from equilibrium without detailed-balanced dynamics. Yet, they often exhibit well defined nonequilibrium steady states (NESSs). More importantly, critical thermodynamic functionality arises directly from transitions among their NESSs, driven by environmental switching. Here, we identify the constraints on excess heat and dissipated work necessary to control a system that is kept far from equilibrium by background, uncontrolled “housekeeping” forces. We do this by extending the Crooks fluctuation theorem to transitions among NESSs, without invoking an unphysical dual dynamics. This and corresponding integral fluctuation theorems determine how much work must be expended when controlling systems maintained far from equilibrium. This generalizes thermodynamic feedback control theory, showing that Maxwellian Demons can leverage mesoscopic-state information to take advantage of the excess energetics in NESS transitions. We also generalize an approach recently used to determine the work dissipated when driving between functionally relevant configurations of an active energy-consuming complex system. Altogether, these results highlight universal thermodynamic laws that apply to the accessible degrees of freedom within the effective dynamic at any emergent level of hierarchical organization. By way of illustration, we analyze a voltage-gated sodium ion channel whose molecular conformational dynamics play a critical functional role in propagating action potentials in mammalian neuronal membranes.

This paper investigates generalized thermodynamic relationships in physical systems where relevant macroscopic variables are determined by the exponential Kolmogorov–Nagumo average. We show that while the thermodynamic entropy of such systems is naturally described by Rényi’s entropy with parameter γ , an ordinary Boltzmann distribution still describes their statistics under equilibrium thermodynamics. Our results show that systems described by exponential Kolmogorov–Nagumo averages can be interpreted as systems originally in thermal equilibrium with a heat reservoir with inverse temperature β that are suddenly quenched to another heat reservoir with inverse temperature $\beta^{^{\prime}} = (1-\gamma)\beta$ . Furthermore, we show the connection with multifractal thermodynamics. For the non-equilibrium case, we show that the dynamics of systems described by exponential Kolmogorov–Nagumo averages still observe a second law of thermodynamics and the H-theorem. We further discuss the applications of stochastic thermodynamics in those systems—namely, the validity of fluctuation theorems—and the connection with thermodynamic length.

Asymptotic fluctuation theorems are statements of a Gallavotti-Cohen symmetry in the rate function of either the time-averaged entropy production or heat dissipation of a process. Such theorems have been proved for various general classes of continuous-time deterministic and stochastic processes, but always under the assumption that the forces driving the system are time independent, and often relying on the existence of a limiting ergodic distribution. In this paper we extend the asymptotic fluctuation theorem for the first time to inhomogeneous continuous-time processes without a stationary distribution, considering specifically a finite state Markov chain driven by periodic transition rates. We find that for both entropy production and heat dissipation, the usual Gallavotti-Cohen symmetry of the rate function is generalized to an analogous relation between the rate functions of the original process and its corresponding backward process, in which the trajectory and the driving protocol have been time-reversed. The effect is that spontaneous positive fluctuations in the long time average of each quantity in the forward process are exponentially more likely than spontaneous negative fluctuations in the backward process, and vice-versa, revealing that the distributions of fluctuations in universes in which time moves forward and backward are related. As an additional result, the asymptotic time-averaged entropy production is obtained as the integral of a periodic entropy production rate that generalizes the constant rate pertaining to homogeneous dynamics.

We apply tensor networks to counting statistics for the stochastic particle transport in an out-of-equilibrium diffusive system. This system is composed of a one-dimensional channel in contact with two particle reservoirs at the ends. Two tensor-network algorithms, namely, density matrix renormalization group and time evolving block decimation, are respectively implemented. The cumulant generating function for the current is numerically calculated and then compared with the analytical solution. Excellent agreement is found, manifesting the validity of these approaches in such an application. Moreover, the fluctuation theorem for the current is shown to hold.

Abstract Tracking the Brownian motion of aerosol particles as they settle in air allows a mass measurement. The particle typically falls downward at its terminal settling velocity; however, the particle occasionally will be displaced upwards due to Brownian fluctuations. The number of occurrences of upward and downward fluctuations is compared, using the formula for the work fluctuation theorem, to yield the mass. This method can be applied to either a single particle or a collection of particles. The advantages of this method include no required information about the size, shape, or density of the particle. Details of the analysis method are presented and illustrated with experimental data. Highlights • Tracking the Brownian motion of particles settling in air allows a mass measurement. • A falling particle is occasionally displaced upwards. • Occurrences of upward and downward displacements depend on a particle's mass. • The formula used is the work fluctuation theorem. • Advantages include no requirement for data on particle's size, shape, or density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extend stochastic thermodynamics by relaxing the two assumptions that the Markovian dynamics must be linear and that the equilibrium distribution must be a Boltzmann distribution. We show that if we require the second law to hold when those assumptions are relaxed, then it cannot be formulated in terms of Shannon entropy. However, thermodynamic consistency is salvaged if we reformulate the second law in terms of generalized entropy; our first result is an equation relating the precise form of the non-linear master equation to the precise associated generalized entropy which results in thermodynamic consistency. We then build on this result to extend the usual trajectory-level definitions of thermodynamic quantities that are appropriate even when the two assumptions are relaxed. We end by using these trajectory-level definitions to derive extended versions of the Crooks fluctuation theorem and Jarzynski equality which apply when the two assumptions are relaxed.

Nonlinear non-equilibrium thermodynamic relations have been constructed based on the generalized Ehrenfest−Klein model. Using these relations, the behavior of the entropy and its production in time at arbitrary deviations from equilibrium has been studied. It has been shown that the transient fluctuation theorem is valid for this model if a dissipation functional is treated as the thermodynamic entropy production.

The fluctuation theorem is a representative theorem in non-equilibrium statistical physics actively studied in the 1990s. Relating to entropy production in non-equilibrium states, the theorem has been used to estimate the driving power of motor proteins from fluctuation in their motion. In this review, usage of the fluctuation theorem in experiments on motor proteins is illustrated for biologists, especially those who study mechanobiology, in which force measurement is a central issue. We first introduce the application of the fluctuation theorem in measuring the rotary torque of the rotary motor protein F1-ATPase. Next, as an extension of this application, a recent trial estimating the force generated during cargo transport in vivo by the microtubule motors kinesin and dynein is introduced. Elucidation of the physical mechanism of such transport is important, especially for neurons, in which deficits in cargo transport are deeply related to neuronal diseases. Finally, perspectives on the fluctuation theorem as a new technique in the field of neuroscience are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluctuation theorems are a group of exact relations that remain valid irrespective of how far the system has been driven away from equilibrium. Other than having practical applications, like determination of equilibrium free energy change from nonequilibrium processes, they help in our understanding of the second law and the emergence of irreversibility from time-reversible equations of motion at microscopic level. A vast number of such theorems have been proposed in literature, ranging from Hamiltonian to stochastic systems, from systems in steady state to those in transient regime, and for both open and closed quantum systems. In this article, we discuss about a few such relations, when the system evolves under Hamiltonian dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of cellular signaling cascades based on information thermodynamics has recently developed considerably. A signaling cascade may be considered a binary code system consisting of two types of signaling molecules that carry biological information, phosphorylated active, and non-phosphorylated inactive forms. This study aims to evaluate the signal transduction step in cascades from the viewpoint of changes in mixing entropy. An increase in active forms may induce biological signal transduction through a mixing entropy change, which induces a chemical potential current in the signaling cascade. We applied the fluctuation theorem to calculate the chemical potential current and found that the average entropy production current is independent of the step in the whole cascade. As a result, the entropy current carrying signal transduction is defined by the entropy current mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now well established that most if not all enzymatic proteins display a slow stochastic dynamics of transitions between a variety of conformational substates composing their native state. A hypothesis is stated that the protein conformational transition networks, as just as higher-level biological networks, the protein interaction network, and the metabolic network, have evolved in the process of self-organized criticality. Here, the criticality means that all the three classes of networks are scale-free and, moreover, display a transition from the fractal organization on a small length-scale to the small-world organization on the large length-scale. Good mathematical models of such networks are stochastic critical branching trees extended by long-range shortcuts. Biological molecular machines are proteins that operate under isothermal conditions and hence are referred to as free energy transducers. They can be formally considered as enzymes that simultaneously catalyze two chemical reactions: the free energy-donating (input) reaction and the free energy-accepting (output) one. The far-from-equilibrium degree of coupling between the output and the input reaction fluxes have been studied both theoretically and by means of the Monte Carlo simulations on model networks. For single input and output gates the degree of coupling cannot exceed unity. Study simulations of random walks on model networks involving more extended gates indicate that the case of the degree of coupling value higher than one is realized on the mentioned above critical branching trees extended by long-range shortcuts.

Some critical trends in information theory, its role in living systems and utilization in fluctuation theory are discussed. The mutual information of thermodynamic coupling is incorporated into the generalized fluctuation theorem by using information theory and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Thermodynamically coupled dissipative structures in living systems are capable of degrading more energy, and processing complex information through developmental and environmental constraints. The generalized fluctuation theorem can quantify the hysteresis observed in the amount of the irreversible work in nonequilibrium regimes in the presence of information and thermodynamic coupling.

Mutual information and its causal variant, directed information, have been widely used to quantitatively characterize the performance of biological sensing and information transduction. However, once coupled with selection in response to decision-making, the sensing signal could have more or less evolutionary value than its mutual or directed information. In this work, we show that an individually sensed signal always has a better fitness value, on average, than its mutual or directed information. The fitness gain, which satisfies fluctuation relations (FRs), is attributed to the selection of organisms in a population that obtain a better sensing signal by chance. A new quantity, similar to the coarse-grained entropy production in information thermodynamics, is introduced to quantify the total fitness gain from individual sensing, which also satisfies FRs. Using this quantity, the optimizing fitness gain of individual sensing is shown to be related to fidelity allocations for individual environmental histories. Our results are supplemented by numerical verifications of FRs, and a discussion on how this problem is linked to information encoding and decoding.

Fluctuation theorems are a class of equalities that express universal properties of the probability distribution of a fluctuating path functional such as heat, work or entropy production over an ensemble of trajectories during a non-equilibrium process with a well-defined initial distribution. Jinwoo and Tanaka (Jinwoo, L.; Tanaka, H. Sci. Rep. 2015, 5, 7832) have shown that work fluctuation theorems hold even within an ensemble of paths to each state, making it clear that entropy and free energy of each microstate encode heat and work, respectively, within the conditioned set. Here we show that information that is characterized by the point-wise mutual information for each correlated state between two subsystems in a heat bath encodes the entropy production of the subsystems and heat bath during a coupling process. To this end, we extend the fluctuation theorem of information exchange (Sagawa, T.; Ueda, M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2012, 109, 180602) by showing that the fluctuation theorem holds even within an ensemble of paths that reach a correlated state during dynamic co-evolution of two subsystems.

Sagawa and Ueda established a fluctuation theorem of information exchange by revealing the role of correlations in stochastic thermodynamics and unified the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of measurement and feedback control. They considered a process where a non-equilibrium system exchanges information with other degrees of freedom such as an observer or a feedback controller. They proved the fluctuation theorem of information exchange under the assumption that the state of the other degrees of freedom that exchange information with the system does not change over time while the states of the system evolve in time. Here we relax this constraint and prove that the same form of the fluctuation theorem holds even if both subsystems co-evolve during information exchange processes. This result may extend the applicability of the fluctuation theorem of information exchange to a broader class of non-equilibrium processes, such as a dynamic coupling in biological systems, where subsystems that exchange information interact with each other.

Close to equilibrium, the exchange of particles and heat between macroscopic systems at different temperatures and different chemical potentials is known to be governed by a matrix of transport coefficients which are positive and symmetric. We investigate the amounts of heat and particles that are exchanged between two small quantum systems within a given time, and find them characterized by a transport matrix which neither needs to be symmetric nor positive. At larger times even spontaneous transport can be observed in the total absence of temperature and chemical potential differences provided that the two systems are different in size. All these deviations from standard transport behavior can be attributed to the fact that work is done on the system in the processes contacting and separating those parts of the system that initially possess different temperatures and chemical potentials. The standard transport properties are recovered for vanishing work and also in the limit of large systems and sufficiently large contact times. The general results are illustrated by an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We survey new extensions of continuum mechanics incorporating spontaneous violations of the Second Law (SL), which involve the viscous flow and heat conduction. First, following an account of the Fluctuation Theorem (FT) of statistical mechanics that generalizes the SL, the irreversible entropy is shown to evolve as a submartingale. Next, a stochastic thermomechanics is formulated consistent with the FT, which, according to a revision of classical axioms of continuum mechanics, must be set up on random fields. This development leads to a reformulation of thermoviscous fluids and inelastic solids. These two unconventional constitutive behaviors may jointly occur in nano-poromechanics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As shown by Jarzynski, free energy differences between equilibrium states can be expressed in terms of the statistics of work carried out on a system during non-equilibrium transformations. This exact result, as well as the related Crooks fluctuation theorem, provide the basis for the computation of free energy differences from fast switching molecular dynamics simulations, in which an external parameter is changed at a finite rate, driving the system away from equilibrium. In this article, we first briefly review the Jarzynski identity and the Crooks fluctuation theorem and then survey various algorithms building on these relations. We pay particular attention to the statistical efficiency of these methods and discuss practical issues arising in their implementation and the analysis of the results.

Under the infrastructure of three gradually deepening layers consisting of System, Service and Software, the information entropy of the Trustworthy Workflow Management System (TWfMS) will evolve from being more precise to more undetermined, due to a series of exception event X occurring on certain components (ExCs), along with the life cycle of TWfMS, experienced in its phased original, as-is, to-be, and agile-consistent stages, and recover, more precisely again, by turning back to the original state from the agile-consistent stage, due to its self-autonomous improvement. With a special emphasis on the system layer, to assure the trustworthiness of WfMS, this paper firstly introduces the preliminary knowledge of the hierarchical information entropy model with correlation theories. After illustrating the fundamental principle, the transformation rule is deduced, step by step, followed by a case study, which is conducive to generating discussions and conclusions in the different research areas of TWfMS. Overall, in this paper, we argue that the trustworthiness maintenance of WfMS could be analyzed and computational, through the viewpoint that all the various states of TWfMS can be considered as the transformation between WfMS and its trustworthiness compensate components, whose information entropy fluctuate repeatedly and comply with the law of the dissipative structure system.

A model of signal transduction from the perspective of informational thermodynamics has been reported in recent studies, and several important achievements have been obtained. The first achievement is that signal transduction can be modelled as a binary code system, in which two forms of signalling molecules are utilised in individual steps. The second is that the average entropy production rate is consistent during the signal transduction cascade when the signal event number is maximised in the model. The third is that a Szilard engine can be a single-step model in the signal transduction. This article reviews these achievements and further introduces a new chain of Szilard engines as a biological reaction cascade (BRC) model. In conclusion, the presented model provides a way of computing the channel capacity of a BRC.

We present a general method to identify an arbitrary number of fluctuating quantities which satisfy a detailed fluctuation theorem for all times within the framework of time-inhomogeneous Markovian jump processes. In doing so, we provide a unified perspective on many fluctuation theorems derived in the literature. By complementing the stochastic dynamics with a thermodynamic structure (i.e., using stochastic thermodynamics), we also express these fluctuating quantities in terms of physical observables.

Kullback–Leibler divergence (KLD) is a type of extended mutual entropy, which is used as a measure of information gain when transferring from a prior distribution to a posterior distribution. In this study, KLD is applied to the thermodynamic analysis of cell signal transduction cascade and serves an alternative to mutual entropy. When KLD is minimized, the divergence is given by the ratio of the prior selection probability of the signaling molecule to the posterior selection probability. Moreover, the information gain during the entire channel is shown to be adequately described by average KLD production rate. Thus, this approach provides a framework for the quantitative analysis of signal transduction. Moreover, the proposed approach can identify an effective cascade for a signaling network.

Cell signal transduction is a non-equilibrium process characterized by the reaction cascade. This study aims to quantify and compare signal transduction cascades using a model of signal transduction. The signal duration was found to be linked to step-by-step transition probability, which was determined using information theory. By applying the fluctuation theorem for reversible signal steps, the transition probability was described using the average entropy production rate. Specifically, when the signal event number during the cascade was maximized, the average entropy production rate was found to be conserved during the entire cascade. This approach provides a quantitative means of analyzing signal transduction and identifies an effective cascade for a signaling network.

A cell signaling system is in a non-equilibrium state, and it includes multistep biochemical signaling cascades (BSCs), which involve phosphorylation of signaling molecules, such as mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. In this study, the author considered signal transduction description using information thermodynamic theory. The ideal BSCs can be considered one type of the Szilard engine, and the presumed feedback controller, Maxwell’s demon, can extract the work during signal transduction. In this model, the mutual entropy and chemical potential of the signal molecules can be redefined by the extracted chemical work in a mechanicochemical model, Szilard engine, of BSC. In conclusion, signal transduction is computable using the information thermodynamic method.

We establish quantum thermodynamics for open quantum systems weakly coupled to their reservoirs when the system exhibits degeneracies. The first and second law of thermodynamics are derived, as well as a finite-time fluctuation theorem for mechanical work and energy and matter currents. Using a double quantum dot junction model, local eigenbasis coherences are shown to play a crucial role on thermodynamics and on the electron counting statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a system of N two-colors urns in which the reinforcement of each urn depends also on the content of all the other urns. This interaction is of mean-field type and it is tuned by a parameter α ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] ; in particular, for α = 0 the N urns behave as N independent Pólya’s urns. For α > 0 urns synchronize, in the sense that the fraction of balls of a given color converges a.s. to the same (random) limit in all urns. In this paper we study fluctuations around this synchronized regime. The scaling of these fluctuations depends on the parameter α . In particular the standard scaling t − 1 / 2 appears only for α > 1 / 2 . For α ≥ 1 / 2 we also determine the limit distribution of the rescaled fluctuations. We use the notion of stable convergence, which is stronger than convergence in distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of the paper is devoted to the foundations, that is the mathematical and physical justification, of equilibrium statistical mechanics. It is a pedagogical attempt, mostly based on Khinchin's presentation, which purpose is to clarify some aspects of the development of statistical mechanics. In the second part, we discuss some recent developments that appeared out of equilibrium, such as fluctuation theorem and Jarzynski equality.

Starting from the most general formulation of stochastic thermodynamics—i.e. a thermodynamically consistent nonautonomous stochastic dynamics describing systems in contact with several reservoirs—we define a procedure to identify the conservative and the minimal set of nonconservative contributions in the entropy production. The former is expressed as the difference between changes caused by time-dependent drivings and a generalized potential difference. The latter is a sum over the minimal set of flux-force contributions controlling the dissipative flows across the system. When the system is initially prepared at equilibrium (e.g. by turning off drivings and forces), a finite-time detailed fluctuation theorem holds for the different contributions. Our approach relies on identifying the complete set of conserved quantities and can be viewed as the extension of the theory of generalized Gibbs ensembles to nonequilibrium situations.

We reformulate stochastic thermodynamics in terms of noise realizations for Langevin systems in contact with multiple reservoirs and investigate the structure of the second laws of thermodynamics. We derive a hierarchy of fluctuation theorems when one degree of freedom of the system is affected by multiple reservoirs simultaneously, that is, when noise-mixing occurs. These theorems and the associated second laws of thermodynamics put stricter bounds on the thermodynamics of Langevin systems. We apply our results to a stochastic machine in noise-mixing environments and demonstrate that our new bounds play a crucial role in determining the potential function and performance of the machine.