Abstract Baule:

I discuss some of the recent developments in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics: (i) A non-equilibrium ensemble theory for phase space trajectories, which has been suggested as a statistical mechanical foundation for phenomena in shear flows and glassy systems. (ii) A non-equilibrium particle model with non-Gaussian fluctuations, which leads to singular features in the distribution of work. By calculating the exact large deviation function, the work fluctuations are shown to violate the steady state fluctuation theorem.