Physics Colloquium: Anomalous thermal relaxations: A class of counter-intuitive, unresolved phenomena that can be observed in your kitchen

ZOOM link: https://zoom.us/j/97115709185

Abstract: 

Does it ever take less time to cool a hot system compared to a cooler copy of the same system? Does it ever happen that the fastest way to heat a system is to first cool it? We are used to thinking on thermal relaxation processes as monotonic in time and initial temperature, however, several experimental and numerical observations suggest this is not always the case. In recent years, a new framework to answer such questions was developed, and surprising "yes" answer where given to the questions above. In the talk I will describe the experimental and numerical observations, the corresponding theory and will try to provide some physical intuition for this strange class of effects.

References:

Z. Lu, O. Raz, PNAS 114, 20 (2017)

I. Klich, O. Raz, O. Hirchberg and M. Vucelja, PRX 9, 2 (2019)

A. Gal and O. Raz, PRL 124, 6 (2020)

A. Kumar, J. Bechhoefer, Nature (in press)

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Event Organizer: Prof. Tomer Volansky