Optimal Control in Weakly Driven Processes

Recent technological developments in manipulating objects of molecular nature have opened a field of intense research in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. One of its main problems is determining optimal protocols that minimize the energy cost of such a procedure for a given system of interest. In this research project, different approaches to classical and quantum systems, in open and thermally isolated regimes, will be addressed using weakly driven processes. The key idea is to identify general properties that characterize such optimal processes under weak perturbation in the external control parameter.