we describe the peculiar conditions under which optically driven gold nanoparticles ( nps ) can significantly increase temperature or even melt a surrounding matrix . 
 the heating and melting processes occur under light illumination and involve the plasmon resonance . for the matrix , 
 we consider water , ice , and polymer . 
 melting and heating the matrix becomes possible if a nanoparticle size is large enough . 
 significant enhancement of the heating effect can appear in ensembles of nps due to an increase of a volume of metal and electric - field amplification .