Nonequilibrium Statistical Thermodynamics at the Nanoscale: from Maxwell Demon to Biological Information Processing

Over the last few years, tremendous advances have been achieved in the observation, control, and understanding of many natural and artificial nanoscopic systems. Examples range from molecular motors, which perform many vital functions in our cells, to single-electron transistors. These structures display fascinating properties such as coherent space-time behaviors or nonlinear transport. The development of new statistical tools capable of coping with their equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties is therefore of fundamental and practical interest. In this direction, this study explores the fluctuation, transport, and dissipation properties of nanoscopic systems. This book contains theoretical and experimental results that provide new insights into the thermodynamics of small systems and shed light on the origin of irreversibility and its constructive role in nonequilibrium processes. Applications are given in the fields of chemistry, genetics, and electronic transport. As a result, this book should be useful and of interest to scientists from a wide range of disciplines, from materials science to biology.