Theory Group Lunchtime Seminars
Scheduled seminars are listed below.
Announcements and reminders will be posted to the physics-theory-group-seminar
list.
To join this list:
- Sign into your university email account via webmail.
- Click the settings icon along the top icon bar (looks like a cog/gear).
- In the "Search Outlook settings" box type "distribution groups" and click the top search result.
- Under "Distribution groups I belong to" click the icon with two little people and a "+" sign.
- Search for physics-theory-group-seminar and double click on the result.
- Click "join". You will then be added to the email list once approved by a moderator.
To leave this list:
- Sign into your university email account via webmail.
- Click the settings icon along the top icon bar (looks like a cog/gear).
- In the "Search Outlook settings" box type "distribution groups" and click the top search result.
- Under "Distribution groups I belong to" click
physics-theory-group-seminar
. - Click the "leave" icon above the list (looks like two people with a minus sign to their bottom right).
[If you are a member of Theory group, you will receive seminar announcements via physics-theory
or physics-theory-staff
. You do NOT need to subscribe to the above mailing list as well.]
Theory Seminar: Patrick Pietzonka (Cambridge), Thermodynamic bounds on currents in driven and active systems
For fluctuating thermodynamic currents in non-equilibrium steady states, the thermodynamic uncertainty relation expresses a fundamental
trade-off between precision, i.e. small fluctuations, and dissipation. I will review generalisations and implications of this
relation, including bounds on large deviation functions and applications to molecular motors and heat engines.
The second part of my talk will be concerned with the thermodynamics of active matter systems, which can drive engines that autonomously
deliver mechanical work against an external mechanical force. We explore design principles for such engines and compare their power and
efficiency to idealised work extraction mechanisms. A mean field approach reveals that the interaction with the passive particle can
mediate cooperativity between otherwise non-interacting active particles, leading to an enhanced efficiency.