Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics is a research area focused on the microscopic foundations and emergent behavior of systems driven away from thermodynamic equilibrium by external forces, gradients, or time-dependent protocols. It extends equilibrium statistical mechanics by analyzing transport processes, relaxation dynamics, fluctuation–dissipation relations, and entropy production in classical and quantum many-body systems. The field encompasses linear and nonlinear response theory, fluctuation theorems, large deviation theory, and stochastic thermodynamics, providing rigorous frameworks to quantify irreversibility, work, heat, and efficiency in driven systems ranging from molecular-scale engines and soft matter to plasmas and complex networks.
The inevitable leakage of energy and information from a quantum system into its surrounding environment is the enemy of quantum technology. Now, researchers have demonstrated that it can be exploited to generate entanglement—the ...
Quantum Physics
Jul 19, 2026
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83
In a new study published in Physical Review Letters, a team from the Nägerl group, together with theory collaborator Alvise Bastianello from the CNRS and the Université Paris-Dauphine, demonstrates that highly unusual quantum ...
Quantum Physics
Jun 18, 2026
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26
Birds in flocks, bacteria and cells: In many collective systems, individual elements respond to only part of their surroundings, seemingly defying Newton's third law of motion—action equals reaction. These exceptions are ...
General Physics
Jun 12, 2026
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317
Glasses are non-crystalline but solid states of matter in which molecules and atoms are not arranged into a regular crystal lattice, but rather in a disordered pattern. Glassy materials are widely used in various settings, ...
A new model to predict how language changes over time has been developed by a statistical physicist at the University of Portsmouth. The model is a step towards understanding the "statistical physics of language," a scientific ...
General Physics
May 5, 2026
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89
Quantum technology has promising potential to revolutionize how large and complex amounts of information are processed. While already in use primarily in laboratory and research settings globally, quantum technologies are ...
Condensed Matter
May 4, 2026
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93
A joint theoretical study by the University of Innsbruck and Zhejiang University has uncovered the microscopic origin of a striking quantum phenomenon: a periodically driven gas of ultracold atoms that simply refuses to heat ...
Quantum Physics
Apr 20, 2026
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18
A research team has, for the first time in the world, elucidated the microscopic mechanism by which quantum order is lost and collapses in "open quantum environments" existing in nature. Since perfectly isolated quantum systems ...
Quantum Physics
Apr 4, 2026
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223
Quantum states are notoriously fragile, and can be destroyed simply through interactions, measurements, and exposure to their surrounding environments. In a new theoretical study published in Physical Review X, Rohan Mittal ...
Physicists have developed a new theoretical framework which unifies a wide array of seemingly unrelated "Mpemba effects": counterintuitive cases where systems driven further from equilibrium relax faster than those closer ...
