Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 3:30 pm — Large Seminar Room, Bldg. 510
The reason we never observe violations of the second law of thermodynamics is a matter of statistics: when ~10^23 degrees of freedom are involved, the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against the possibility of seeing large deviations away from the mean behavior. As we turn our attention to smaller systems, however, statistical fluctuations become more prominent. In recent years it has become apparent that the fluctuations of systems far from thermal equilibrium satisfy strong, useful, and unexpected laws. In particular, a proper accounting of fluctuations allows us to rewrite familiar inequalities of macroscopic thermodynamics as equalities. I will describe some of this progress, and will argue that it has refined our understanding of irreversibility, the second law, and the thermodynamic arrow of time.
Hosted by: Rob Pisarski
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