Stochastic Thermodynamic Treatment of Thermal Anisotropy

This thesis advances our understanding of how thermal anisotropy can be exploited to extract work through a mechanism that is quite distinct from the classical Carnot heat engine. Anisotropy, the presence of thermal or chemical gradients, is ubiquitous in the real world and powers the cascade of processes that sustain life. The thesis quantifies, for the first time, the maximum amount of power and efficiency that a suitable mechanism (a Brownian gyrator) can achieve in such conditions. An i...