Nonequilibrium systems, as physical systems, are characterized by the absence of thermodynamic equilibrium, typically involving persistent fluxes of matter, energy, or momentum, and non-vanishing thermodynamic forces such as gradients of temperature, chemical potential, or velocity. Their macroscopic behavior cannot be fully described by equilibrium statistical mechanics, requiring frameworks like nonequilibrium thermodynamics, kinetic theory, and stochastic processes. These systems may exhibit time-dependent evolution, dissipation, entropy production, and emergent structures (e.g., patterns or self-organization) sustained by external driving. Nonequilibrium conditions are fundamental in transport phenomena, reaction–diffusion processes, driven granular media, active matter, and many open systems exchanging energy or particles with their environment.
Time-dependent driving has become a powerful tool for creating novel nonequilibrium phases such as discrete time crystals and Floquet topological phases, which do not exist in static systems. Breaking continuous time-translation ...
Quantum Physics
Jan 30, 2026
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71
Physical systems become inherently more complicated and difficult to produce in a lab as the number of dimensions they exist in increases—even more so in quantum systems. While discrete time crystals (DTCs) had been previously ...
What if you could create new materials just by shining a light at them? To most, this sounds like science fiction or alchemy, but to physicists investigating the burgeoning field of Floquet engineering, this is the goal. ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 19, 2026
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1741
When describing collective properties of macroscopic physical systems, microscopic fluctuations are typically averaged out, leaving a description of the typical behavior of the systems. While this simplification has its advantages, ...
General Physics
Nov 28, 2025
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145
Constructing out-of-equilibrium molecular assemblies that deviate from thermodynamic equilibrium is a central challenge in materials science. While numerous studies have reported the creation of such states using external ...
Nanomaterials
Nov 17, 2025
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255
Phases of matter are the basic states that matter can take—like water that can occur in a liquid or ice phase. Traditionally, these phases are defined under equilibrium conditions, where the system is stable over time. But ...
Quantum Physics
Sep 10, 2025
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171
How can a horde of active robots be automatically brought to a standstill? By arresting their dynamics in a self-sustained way. This phenomenon was discovered by physicists at Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf (HHU) and ...
General Physics
Aug 6, 2025
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71
Physicists at TU Dortmund University have periodically driven a time crystal and discovered a remarkable variety of nonlinear dynamic phenomena, ranging from perfect synchronization to chaotic behavior within a single semiconductor ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 2, 2025
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167
A team experimentally observed higher-order and fractional discrete time crystals (DTCs) in periodically driven Rydberg atomic dissipative systems. Their study was published in Nature Communications. The team was led by Prof. ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 2, 2024
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36
Two systems exist in thermal equilibrium if no heat passes between them. Computers, which consume energy and give off heat as they process information, operate far from thermal equilibrium. Were they to stop consuming energy—say ...
General Physics
Oct 30, 2024
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88
