PICS Colloquium: Macroscopic stochastic thermodynamics with Massimiliano Esposito [VIRTUAL]

This speaker event is virtual, but will be screened in PICS 534 with refreshments.

Abstract: Equilibrium thermodynamics emerges from equilibrium statistical mechanics as the most likely behavior of a system in the macroscopic limit. Over the last two decades, significant progress has been made in formulating statistical mechanics for small systems operating far-from-equilibrium. The resulting theory is often called stochastic thermodynamics. I will show that by taking the macroscopic limit of stochastic thermodynamics, one can formulate a nonequilibrium thermodynamics for large systems, typically described by nonlinear deterministic dynamics and macroscopic fluctuations around it [1]. This macroscopic stochastic thermodynamics gives rise to novel fundamental results. For instance, once can bound nonequilibrium steady state fluctuations using the entropy production along deterministic relaxation trajectories [2]. Many classical phenomenological results from macroscopic irreversible thermodynamics are also recovered within well controlled approximations. This theory opens the way to study the energetics of many complex nonlinear phenomena in a broad range of systems, such as chemical reaction networks (CRNs), nonlinear electrical circuits, and Potts models.

References:

[1] G. Falasco and M. Esposito, ”Macroscopic stochastic thermodynamics”, Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015002 (2025).

[2] N. Freitas and M. Esposito, ”Emergent second law for non-equilibrium steady states”, Nature Communications 13, 5084 (2022).

Bio: Prof. Massimiliano Esposito is a theoretical physicist specializing in statistical physics and the study of complex systems. His research focuses on energy and information processing in open systems ranging from mesoscopic quantum systems to chemical reaction networks.

He obtained his PhD in 2004 at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium. After two postdocs in California at UC Irvine and UC San Diego, he came back in 2009 as a contract researcher for two years at ULB. In 2012 he was awarded a five year Attract Fellowship by the National Research Fund of Luxembourg to start his own research group “Complex Systems and Statistical Mechanics” in the Physics and Materials Science Research Unit at the University of Luxembourg. In 2016 he became Professor of Theoretical Physics and was awarded a five years Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council. He is currently a member of the editorial board of Physical Review Letters.