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 Kibble–Zurek (KZ) mechanism is a theoretical framework introduced by physicists Tom Kibble and Wojciech Zurek. This framework essentially describes the formation of topological defects while systems undergo non-equilibrium ...
A dissipative time crystal is a phase of matter characterized by periodic oscillations over time, while a system is dissipating energy. In contrast with conventional time crystals, which can also occur in closed systems with ...
A team of physicists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel has successfully demonstrated the inverse Mpemba effect at the quantum level using single trapped ions. In their study, published in the journal Physical ...
In physics, nonreciprocity occurs when a system's response varies depending on the direction in which waves or signals are propagating within it. This asymmetry arises from a break in so-called time-reversal symmetry, which ...
Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have recast diffusion in multicomponent alloys as a sum of individual contributions, called "kinosons." Using machine learning to compute the statistical distribution ...
Condensed Matter
May 15, 2024
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70
Researchers Kazuaki Takasan and Kyogo Kawaguchi of the University of Tokyo with Kyosuke Adachi of RIKEN, Japan, have demonstrated that ferromagnetism, an ordered state of atoms, can be induced by increasing particle motility ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 26, 2024
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177
A collaborative research team has reported experimental evidence of a transition from ergodic toward ergodic breaking dynamics in driven-dissipative Rydberg atomic gases. The results were published in Science Advances.
Condensed Matter
Apr 1, 2024
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94
Entropy, the amount of molecular disorder, is produced in several systems but cannot be measured directly. An equation developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, and Heinrich Heine University ...
Nanophysics
Mar 26, 2024
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146
Physicists in Darmstadt are investigating aging processes in materials. For the first time, they have measured the ticking of an internal clock in glass. When evaluating the data, they discovered a surprising phenomenon.
Condensed Matter
Jan 26, 2024
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A new study led by scientists from Spain and Germany has found a fundamental asymmetry showing that heating is consistently faster than cooling, challenging conventional expectations and introducing the concept of "thermal ...
