The discovery of Fluctuation Theorems, which rewrite familiar inequalities of macroscopic thermodynamics as equalities, is widely regarded as one of the most prominent breakthroughs in the field of statistical physics in the past two decades. The thermodynamic second law is a simple corollary of fluctuation theorems, from which one can predict quantitatively how often nonequilibrium processes violate the law of entropy increase. Violations disappear in the thermodynamic limit, but can be observed reasonably well in small systems. In this talk, I will briefly introduce the stochastic thermodynamics and derive various Fluctuation Theorems, including their quantum extension. I will also discuss the experimental verification of the Fluctuation Theorems in both classical and quantum regimes.

Speaker: Haitao Quan (Peking University)

Haitao Quan obtained his bachelor’s degree and his PhD from Central South University and the Institute of Theoretical Physics, CAS in 2002 and 2007, respectively. From 2007 to 2012 he was a postdoctoral fellow in Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Maryland, College Park, respectively. He joined the School of Physics, Peking University as a junior faculty in Dec. 2012. His main research interests lie in statistical physics and quantum physics. He has published more than 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals with a total number of citations of more than 2400 times. He received numerous awards, including the National Natural Science Award (2008) and the Distinguished Yong Scholars of NSFC (2018).