Role of Thermal Noise in Dynamics of Non-equilibrium Systems: Macro-, Meso- and Microscopic

In this short review we discuss a decisive and some time unexpected role of a thermal noise in spatio-temporal dynamics of three different non-equilibrium systems, distinguished by their spatial scales, namely macroscopic, mesoscopic as well as microscopic, and by corresponding physical parameters relevant to their susceptibility to thermal fluctuations. As examples of such non-equilibrium systems, we choose a spatio-temporal pattern dynamics in a Rayleigh–Benard convection of a fluid in the vicinity of the gas-liquid critical point, as a macroscopic system; a spatio-temporal dynamics of a vesicle in shear as well as linear flows, as a mesoscopic system; and a dynamics of long flexible linear polymer molecules in a shear flow, as a microscopic system.