Nonlinear Brownian Machines

Abstract

Firstly I would like to thank my advisor Welles Antonio Martinez Morgado for his support and guidance, not only in the past four years but throughout my entire trajectory in physics, essentially from day one.I would like to thank my co-advisor Sílvio Manuel Duarte Queirós for his dedication and for all the patience required to work with me.I would like to thank my family for all of their support which, undoubtedly, is the main reason I managed to thread this far.I would like to thank my friends and colleagues Eduardo Colombo, Michael Cândido, Carlos Olivares, João Ribeiro, Julio Nicolini and Julio Ribeiro, for all the riveting conversations and for the unending stream of unwanted, undesired and most of all unsolicited pieces of advise.I would like to thank the administrative staff of the physics department,