ICTS

Stochastic Thermodynamics and Active Systems are areas in statistical physics which have recently attracted a lot of attention and many interesting results have emerged in these areas. Stochastic Thermodynamics typically deals with small systems where the microscopic dynamics satisfies detailed balance and one is interested in deriving laws analogous to thermodynamics but now in a situation where fluctuations are important. An important discovery in this area are the so-called fluctuation relations. Active Systems include systems such as living biological matter, granular materials and other systems where the microscopic dynamics is stochastic, diffusive and dissipative but with the important difference that detailed balance is not satisfied. In addition, non-equilibrium driving in active matter systems occurs at the scale of the individual entities rather than being driven from the system boundaries. A very important question is to formulate a version of stochastic thermodynamics for these systems. The aim of this discussion meeting is to bring together leading researchers in these two areas to exchange ideas and share important developments connecting the two fields.

The meeting is organised around the ICTS - Infosys Subramanyan Chandrasekhar lecture series (3 talks) by Ajay Sood (IISc, Bangalore). Apart from these lectures, there will be invited talks by other experts in the field. There will also be a poster session.