Mesoscopic thermodynamics for the dynamics of small-scale systems

Abstract

We analyze the mesoscopic dynamics of small-scale systems from the perspective of mesoscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The theory obtains the Fokker-Planck equation as a diffusion equation for the probability density of the mesoscopic variables and the nonlinear relationships between activation rates and affinities proper of activated processes. The situations that can be studied with this formalism include, among others, barrier crossing dynamics and non-linear transport in a great variety of systems. We, in particular, consider the cases of single-molecule stretching and activated processes in small systems.