David Lacoste

Research·04 / 06

Stochastic thermodynamics

Small systems such as molecular motors, colloids or chemical reactions fluctuate strongly and operate far from equilibrium. Stochastic thermodynamics extends the laws of thermodynamics to this regime, at the level of single trajectories.

Trade-offs · Inference · Fluctuation theorems · Molecular motors

Fluctuation relations and the second law

Fluctuation theorems constrain the statistics of entropy production far from equilibrium. We derived such relations for molecular motors, generalised the fluctuation–dissipation theorem to non-stationary states, obtained inequalities that generalise the second law for transitions between such states, and extended fluctuation relations to equilibrium states with broken symmetries.

Thermodynamic inference

In experiments, only part of a system is observed. We developed methods to estimate dissipation from coarse-grained or noisy measurements, and tested them on chemical reactions and on pairs of magnetic colloidal particles.

Trade-offs and efficiency

Energy converters cannot be fast, precise and efficient at the same time. We studied power–efficiency trade-offs, the degree of coupling of machines far from equilibrium, and the thermodynamics and kinetics of reversible polymerization in open and closed systems.

Publications 24

All publications

Thermodynamic trade-offs and efficiency

Reversible polymerization

Fluctuations and broken symmetries

Thermodynamic inference

Modified fluctuation–dissipation theorem and the second law

Fluctuation theorems for molecular motors