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.
Quantum batteries, devices that store energy by exploiting quantum mechanical phenomena, could, in principle, be charged faster and more efficiently than classical ones. Despite their potential, connecting these batteries ...
What is heat, and what is useful work if a machine consists only of an atom and light particles? In modern quantum technologies, this kind of question connects thermodynamics with quantum physics. Researchers at the University ...
General Physics
Aug 17, 2026
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Every electronic and optoelectronic device generates heat, and today that heat is managed almost entirely from the outside. Heatsinks, fans, cold plates and refrigerators are bulky exterior measures bolted onto a chip or ...
A new study in Nature Communications has established a link between the Riemann Hypothesis and dynamical phase transitions in engineered quantum systems, demonstrating the effect on a quantum processor.
Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), the Technical University of Darmstadt, Sapienza University in Rome and the University of Camerino (both in Italy) have calculated the fundamental laws of thermodynamics ...
General Physics
Jul 27, 2026
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Physicists have discovered a surprisingly simple way to reproduce one of the most fascinating models in modern physics—linked to black holes, quantum chaos and exotic electronic materials—using ultracold atoms trapped in ...
Quantum Physics
Jul 23, 2026
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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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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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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, ...
