Condensed Matter Seminars

Thermal quenching is the process of rapidly cooling or heating a material. It has been practiced since ancient times to obtain desirable mechanical properties in materials, especially metals. The dynamics in play during quenching fall in the regime of non-equilibrium dynamics and is a subject of interest as most processes in nature happen out of equilibrium. A curious phenomenon during out of equilibrium processes is the so called Mpemba effect. The Mpemba effect is a phenomenon where a system prepared at a hot temperature (Thot) “overtakes” an identical system prepared at a warm temperature (Twarm) and cools down faster to be in equilibrium with a cold environment (Thot > Twarm > Tenvironment). My project involves studying the dynamics and behavior of linear chemical reaction networks during this kind of out of equilibrium process. Chemical reaction networks are a good model to study various biochemical processes, which are integral to the study of biochemical pathways and thus the functioning of cells. I am especially searching for the existence of a Mpemba like behavior in these kinds of systems and trying to characterize their behavior and dependence on the different parameters of the linear chemical reaction network. In this seminar I will be detailing on the methods used to study the out of equilibrium dynamics of linear chemical reaction networks and will be presenting the preliminary results which indicates the existence of Mpemba like behavior. This understanding will eventually lead to the optimization of chemical production for industrial application and characterization of biochemical pathways.