A1. Stochastic Processes in Complex Environments

Special Session organized by: J. Talbot and C. Mejia-Monasterio

Many processes of technological or biological interest are dominated by fluctuations. Typically such processes occur in small, confined environments and include, e.g., transport in nano-pores and cells, heat dissipation in nano-devices, molecular and granular motors. In these systems a statistical approach, which takes the fluctuations into account, is essential, as macroscopic approaches such as classical thermodynamics and continuum transport theory give only mean values. Ecological applications of stochastic processes have also seen considerable growth in the last few years. An example is animal foraging in patchy environments that can be modelled using first passage processes.


Keywords:

First passage processes. Reaction-diffusion processes. Normal and anomalous Transport. Fluctuation relations. Molecular and granular motors. Animal foraging.