According to conventional wisdom, a system placed in an environment with a different
temperature tends to relax to the temperature of the latter, mediated by the flows of heat or …

A fundamental result of thermodynamic geometry is that the optimal, minimal-work protocol
that drives a nonequilibrium system between two thermodynamic states in the slow-driving …

We review recent progress in optimal control in stochastic thermodynamics. Theoretical
advances provide in-depth insight into minimum-dissipation control with either full or limited …

Complex and even non-monotonic responses to external control can be found in many
thermodynamic systems. In such systems, nonequilibrium shortcuts can rapidly drive the …

By controlling the variance of the radiation pressure exerted on an optically trapped
microsphere in real time, we engineer temperature protocols that shortcut thermal relaxation …

Many systems, when initially placed far from equilibrium, exhibit surprising behavior in their
attempt to equilibrate. Striking examples are the Mpemba effect and the cooling-heating …

We propose a geometric theory of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, namely geometric
thermodynamics, using our recent developments of differential-geometric aspects of entropy …

Optimal control theory deals with finding protocols to steer a system between assigned initial
and final states, such that a trajectory-dependent cost function is minimized. The application …

We present and characterize a method to accelerate the relaxation of a Brownian object
between two distinct equilibrium states. Instead of relying on a deterministic time-dependent …

In this perspective paper, we look into memory effects in out-of-equilibrium systems. To be
concrete, we exemplify memory effects with the paradigmatic case of granular fluids …