Systems out of equilibrium are ubiquitous in nature, being characterized by a continuous exchange of energy or matter with the environment to maintain a non-equilibrium steady state and, thus, producing entropy at the macroscopic level. We are devoted to the study of different features characterizing non-equilibrium systems, in particular the entropy production. Our research aims at understanding and improving the modelling of biological systems, as artificial and natural molecular motors, and investigating more fundamental theoretical problems of statistical mechanics, as the effect of coarse-graining on the estimation of physical observables.

Topics on which we are currently working are: Entropy production in Master Equation systems; The effect of coarse-graining; Entropy production for colloidal particles. Several issues in defining a microscopic entropy production and its diffusive limit in a consistent way have been addressed and still are under investigation. Several ongoing projects are being carried out with external collaborators, involving the study of time-periodic driving and relaxation dynamics.

People: Daniel M. Busiello, Jorge Hidalgo, Amos Maritan
Collaborators: Christopher Jarzynski (University of Maryland, College Park), Oren Raz (Weizmann Institute)