Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics

Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics is an important topic in theoretical physics encompassing fundamental aspects (e.g. irreversibility) and applications (from biology, as molecular motors and active matter, to nano- and micro-devices).

The book is divided in two parts.A first part is devoted to the introduction of the basic subjects of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics such as Brownian motion, Boltzmann equation, Onsager relations and Fluctuation Dissipation relations (including the most recent developments through the Fluctuation theorems).

The first part of the book is intended to provide the reader with the general mathematical tools and physical concepts needed to address the topics discussed in the second part and to make the book self-consistent. With respect to other available textbooks, the authors plan to present such theoretical approaches also discussing in some detail the historical route leading to their development.

The thread connecting the topics discussed in the second part is the following: the authors will first discuss some general issues related to model-building and to causality from data analysis; then they will illustrate these issues in specific non-equilibrium systems, from multi-scale models to granular and active matter. In particular, regarding the granular systems they intend to treat, they will consider several different regimes, from granular gases and fluids to very dense systems. The authors will illustrate in these cases the application of many of the topics presented in the previous chapters: i) Fluctuation-Dissipation relations, ii) Fluctuation Theorems, iii) model-building from data analysis; iv) transport and diffusion properties. Regarding the active matter, they will mainly consider models of Active Ornstein Uhlenbeck Particles, for which they will consider the same points i)-iv) mentioned above.