Thermodynamics of Small Systems

Abstract

After an informal review of the basic ideas in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, I collect sparse observations on the statistical physics of small systems (small N, few degrees of freedom, nanometer scale in size). Inspired by the contributions of Philippe Chomaz, Francesca Gulminelli and Michel Farizon, presented in this section, I would like to envisage connections with other contributions in the volume, and with other themes of research, close and not so close; the hamiltonian mean field model, the biophysical chemistry of dilute protein solutions and the non equilibrium properties of small systems. Further investigations on the analogies between effectively and real long‐range systems could open new perspectives for a thermodynamic understanding of matter at the nanoscale, but also on larger scales…it seems a matter of relaxation times.