Steady-state Fluctuation Theorem Research Articles

Geometric phaselike effects of driven transport in presence of reservoir squeezing.

In a bare bosonic site coupled to two reservoirs, we explore the statistics of boson exchange in the presence of two simultaneous processes: squeezing the two reservoirs and driving the two reservoirs. The squeezing parameters compete with the geometric phaselike effect or geometricity to alter the nature of the steady-state flux and noise. The even (odd) geometric cumulants and the total minimum entropy are found to be symmetric (antisymmetric) with respect to exchanging the left and right squeezing parameters. Upon increasing the strength of the squeezing parameters, loss of geometricity is observed. Under maximum squeezing, one can recover a standard steady-state fluctuation theorem even in the presence of phase-different driving protocol. A recently proposed modified geometric thermodynamic uncertainty principle is found to be robust.

Observation of non-equilibrium fluctuation in the shear-stress-driven hemoglobin aggregates.

Non-equilibrium fluctuations caused by the rearrangement of hemoglobin molecules into an aggregate state under shear stress have been investigated experimentally. The flow response under the shear stress (σ) corroborates the presence of contrasting aggregate and rejuvenation states governed by entropy production and consumption events. From the time-dependent shear rate fluctuation studies of aggregate states, the probability distribution function (PDF) of the rate of work done is observed to be spread from negative to positive values with a net positive mean. The PDFs follow the steady-state fluctuation theorem, even at a smaller timescale than that desired by the theorem. The behavior of the effective temperature (Teff) that emerges from a non-equilibrium fluctuation and interconnects with the structural restrictions of the aggregate state of our driven system is observed to be within the boundary of the thermodynamic uncertainty. The increase in Teff with the applied σ illustrates a phenomenal nonlinear power flux-dependent aggregating behavior in a classic bio-molecular-driven system.

Langevin analogy between particle trajectories and polymer configurations.

A diffusive trajectory drawn by the generalized Langevin equation(GLE) for a colloidal particle evokes a random fractal of a static polymer configuration. This article proposes a static GLE-like description that enables the generation of a single configuration of a polymer chain with the noise formulated to satisfy the static fluctuation-response relation (FRR) along a one-dimensional chain structure but not along a temporal coordinate. A remarkable point is qualitative differences and similarities in the FRR formulation between the static and the dynamic GLEs. Guided by the static FRR, we further make analogous arguments in light of stochastic energetics and the steady-state fluctuation theorem.

Counting statistics of energy transport across squeezed thermal reservoirs

A general formalism for computing the full counting statistics of energy exchanged between 'N' squeezed thermal photon reservoirs weakly coupled to a cavity with 'M' photon modes is presented. The formalism is based on the two-point measurement scheme and is applied to two simple special cases, the relaxation dynamics of a single mode cavity in contact with a single squeezed thermal photon reservoir and the steady-state energy transport between two squeezed thermal photon reservoirs coupled to a single cavity mode. Using analytical results, it is found that the short time statistics is significantly affected by noncommutivity of the initial energy measurements with the reservoirs squeezed states, and may lead to negative probabilities if not accounted properly. Furthermore, it is found that for the single reservoir setup, generically there is no transient or steady-state fluctuation theorems for energy transport. In contrast, for the two reservoir case, although there is no generic transient fluctuation theorem, steady-state fluctuation theorem with a non-universal affinity is found to be valid. Statistics of energy currents are further discussed.

Fluctuation theorem convergence in a viscoelastic medium demonstrated experimentally using a dusty plasma.

The convergence of the steady-state fluctuation theorem (SSFT) is investigated in a shear-flow experiment performed in a dusty plasma. This medium has a viscoelastic property characterized by the Maxwell relaxation time τ_{M}. Using measurements of the time series of the entropy production rate, for subsystems of various sizes, it is discovered that the SSFT convergence time decreases with the increasing system size until it eventually reaches a minimum value of τ_{M}, no matter the size of the subsystem. This result indicates that the convergence of the SSFT is limited by the energy-storage property of the viscoelastic medium.

Finite-time fluctuation theorem for oscillatory lattices driven by a temperature gradient.

The finite-time fluctuation theorem (FT) for the master functional, total entropy production, and medium entropy is studied in the one-dimensional Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou-β (FPUT-β) chain coupled with two heat reservoirs at different temperatures. Through numerical simulations and theoretical analysis, we find that the nonequilibrium steady-state distribution of the one-dimensional FPUT-β chain violates the time-reversal symmetry. Thus, unlike the master functional, the total entropy production fails to satisfy the fluctuation relation for finite time. Meanwhile, we discuss the range of medium entropy production which obeys the conventional steady-state fluctuation theorem (SSFT) in the infinite time limit. Furthermore, we find that the generalized SSFT for medium entropy monotonically approaches the conventional SSFT as the time interval increases, irrespective of temperature difference, anharmonicity, and system size. Interestingly, the medium entropy production rate shows a nonmonotonic variation with anharomonicity, which comes from a competition mechanism of the phonon transport. Correspondingly, the difference between the generalized SSFT and the conventional SSFT shows similar nonmonotonic behaviors.

Quantum bath effects on nonequilibrium heat transport in model molecular junctions.

Quantum-classical dynamics simulations enable the study of nonequilibrium heat transport in realistic models of molecules coupled to thermal baths. In these simulations, the initial conditions of the bath degrees of freedom are typically sampled from classical distributions. Herein, we investigate the effects of sampling the initial conditions of the thermal baths from quantum and classical distributions on the steady-state heat current in the nonequilibrium spin-boson model-a prototypical model of a single-molecule junction-in different parameter regimes. For a broad range of parameter regimes considered, we find that the steady-state heat currents are ∼1.3-4.5 times larger with the classical bath sampling than with the quantum bath sampling. Using both types of sampling, the steady-state heat currents exhibit turnovers as a function of the bath reorganization energy, with sharper turnovers in the classical case than in the quantum case and different temperature dependencies of the turnover maxima. As the temperature gap between the hot and cold baths increases, we observe an increasing difference in the steady-state heat currents obtained with the classical and quantum bath sampling. In general, as the bath temperatures are increased, the differences between the results of the classical and quantum bath sampling decrease but remain non-negligible at the high bath temperatures. The differences are attributed to the more pronounced temperature dependence of the classical distribution compared to the quantum one. Moreover, we find that the steady-state fluctuation theorem only holds for this model in the Markovian regime when quantum bath sampling is used. Altogether, our results highlight the importance of quantum bath sampling in quantum-classical dynamics simulations of quantum heat transport.

Testing the Steady-State Fluctuation Relation in the Solar Photospheric Convection.

The turbulent thermal convection on the Sun is an example of an irreversible non-equilibrium phenomenon in a quasi-steady state characterized by a continuous entropy production rate. Here, the statistical features of a proxy of the local entropy production rate, in solar quiet regions at different timescales, are investigated and compared with the symmetry conjecture of the steady-state fluctuation theorem by Gallavotti and Cohen. Our results show that solar turbulent convection satisfies the symmetries predicted by the fluctuation relation of the Gallavotti and Cohen theorem at a local level.

Entropy production for partially observed harmonic systems

The probability distribution of the total entropy production in the non-equilibrium steady state follows a symmetry relation called the fluctuation theorem. When a certain part of the system is masked or hidden, it is difficult to infer the exact estimate of the total entropy production. Entropy produced from the observed part of the system shows significant deviation from the steady state fluctuation theorem. This deviation occurs due to the interaction between the observed and the masked part of the system. A naive guess would be that the deviation from the steady state fluctuation theorem may disappear in the limit of small interaction between both parts of the system. In contrast, we investigate the entropy production of a particle in a harmonically coupled Brownian particle system (say, particle A and B) in a heat reservoir at a constant temperature. The system is maintained in the non-equilibrium steady state using stochastic driving. When the coupling between particle A and B is infinitesimally weak, the deviation from the steady state fluctuation theorem for the entropy production of a partial system of a coupled system is studied. Furthermore, we consider a harmonically confined system (i.e. a harmonically coupled system of particle A and B in harmonic confinement). In the weak coupling limit, the entropy produced by the partial system (e.g. particle A) of the coupled system in a harmonic trap satisfies the steady state fluctuation theorem. Numerical simulations are performed to support the analytical results. Part of these results were announced in a recent letter, see Gupta and Sabhapandit (2016 Europhys. Lett. 115 60003).

Negative entropy-production rate in Rayleigh-Bénard convection in two-dimensional Yukawa liquids.

The steady-state fluctuation theorem (SSFT) gives the relative probability of occurrence of events violating the second law of thermodynamics in a system with a small number of degrees of freedom. Using two-dimensional complex plasma as a working medium, wherein particle level observation of instantaneous velocities and positions has become experimentally possible, we perform "first-principles" molecular-dynamics simulations using the Yukawa potential in the presence of external gravity and an external temperature gradient leading to the onset and formation of Rayleigh-Bénard convection cells. In such a far-from-equilibrium steady state, the SSFT is put to the test. It is demonstrated that the SSFT is satisfied without any additional fit parameter for observation time τ, comparable to or greater than the relevant microscopic timescale associated with the system under observation.

Statistics of heat transport across a capacitively coupled double quantum dot circuit

We study heat current and the full statistics of heat fluctuations in a capacitively-coupled double quantum dot system. This work is motivated by recent theoretical studies and experimental works on heat currents in quantum dot circuits. As expected intuitively, within the (static) mean-field approximation, the system at steady-state decouples into two single-dot equilibrium systems with renormalized dot energies, leading to zero average heat flux and fluctuations. This reveals that dynamic correlations induced between electrons on the dots is solely responsible for the heat transport between the two reservoirs. To study heat current fluctuations, we compute steady-state cumulant generating function for heat exchanged between reservoirs using two approaches : Lindblad quantum master equation approach, which is valid for arbitrary coulomb interaction strength but weak system-reservoir coupling strength, and the saddle point approximation for Schwinger-Keldysh coherent state path integral, which is valid for arbitrary system-reservoir coupling strength but weak coulomb interaction strength. Using thus obtained generating functions, we verify steady-state fluctuation theorem for stochastic heat flux and study the average heat current and its fluctuations. We find that the heat current and its fluctuations change non-monotonically with the coulomb interaction strength ($U$) and system-reservoir coupling strength ($\Gamma$) and are suppressed for large values of $U$ and $\Gamma$.

Hydrodynamic fluctuations of entropy in one-dimensionally expanding system

The fluctuation–dissipation relation tells that dissipation always accompanies with thermal fluctuations. Relativistic fluctuating hydrodynamics is used to study the effects of the thermal fluctuations in the hydrodynamic expansion of the quark-gluon plasma created in the high-energy nuclear collisions. We show that the thermal noise obeys the steady-state fluctuation theorem when (i) the time scales of the evolution of thermodynamic quantities are sufficiently longer than the relaxation time, and (ii) the thermal fluctuations of temperature are sufficiently small. The steady-state fluctuation theorem describes the distribution of the entropy which can be related to the multiplicity observed in high-energy nuclear collisions. As a consequence, we propose an upper bound to the multiplicity fluctuations which is useful to test the initial state models. We also numerically investigate breaking of the steady-state fluctuation theorem due to the non-vanishing relaxation time in real nuclear collisions.

Partial entropy production in heat transport

We consider a system of two Brownian particles (say A and B), coupled to each other via harmonic potential of stiffness constant k. Particle-A is connected to two heat baths of constant temperatures T1 and T2, and particle-B is connected to a single heat bath of a constant temperature T3. In the steady state, the total entropy production for both particles obeys the fluctuation theorem. We compute the total entropy production due to particle-A in the coupled system (partial and apparent entropy production) in the steady state for a time segment τ. When both particles are weakly interacting with each other, the fluctuation theorem for partial and apparent entropy production is studied. We find a significant deviation from the fluctuation theorem. The analytical results are also verified using numerical simulations. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of hidden fast degrees of freedom on the steady state fluctuation theorem for a system of a single Brownian particle coupled to two heat baths of distinct temperatures and dissipation constants, and coupled to a third heat bath of vanishing temperature and dissipation constant.

Steady-state work fluctuations for an overdamped Brownian particle driven by external stochastic force

The steady-state work fluctuations for an overdamped Brownian particle driven by an external stochastic force are analyzed by using the Langevin approach. The first two moments of the work distribution are given analytically, both are proportional to the time duration of the work injection. The first two moments determine a unique Gaussian function, and the deviations of the probability density functions (PDFs) of work from the Gaussian functions are measured. The tails of the PDFs are shown to approximate the Gaussian functions. In the limit of weak external force and large time interval, the PDF can be approximated by the Gaussian form and the steady-state fluctuation theorem is held.

The McLennan–Zubarev steady state distribution and fluctuation theorems

The McLennan–Zubarev steady state distribution is studied in the connection with fluctuation theorems. We derive the McLennan–Zubarev steady state distribution from the nonequilibrium detailed balance relation. Then, considering the cumulant function or cumulant functional, two fluctuation theorems for entropy and for currents are proved. Using the fluctuation theorem for currents, the current is expanded in terms of thermodynamic forces. In the lowest order of the thermodynamic force, we find that the transport coefficient satisfies the Onsager’s reciprocal relation. In the next order, we derived the correction term to the Green–Kubo formula.

Exact symmetries in the velocity fluctuations of a hot Brownian swimmer.

Symmetries constrain dynamics. We test this fundamental physical principle, experimentally and by molecular dynamics simulations, for a hot Janus swimmer operating far from thermal equilibrium. Our results establish scalar and vectorial steady-state fluctuation theorems and a thermodynamic uncertainty relation that link the fluctuating particle current to its entropy production at an effective temperature. A Markovian minimal model elucidates the underlying nonequilibrium physics.

Fluctuation theorem for entropy production of a partial system in the weak-coupling limit

Small systems in contact with a heat bath evolve by stochastic dynamics. Here we show that, when one such small system is weakly coupled to another one, it is possible to infer the presence of such weak coupling by observing the violation of the steady-state fluctuation theorem for the partial entropy production of the observed system. We give a general mechanism due to which the violation of the fluctuation theorem can be significant, even for weak coupling. We analytically demonstrate on a realistic model system that this mechanism can be realized by applying an external random force to the system. In other words, we find a new fluctuation theorem for the entropy production of a partial system, in the limit of weak coupling.

The large deviation principle and steady-state fluctuation theorem for the entropy production rate of a stochastic process in magnetic fields

Fluctuation theorem is one of the major achievements in the field of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics during the past two decades. There exist very few results for steady-state fluctuation theorem of sample entropy production rate in terms of large deviation principle for diffusion processes due to the technical difficulties. Here we give a proof for the steady-state fluctuation theorem of a diffusion process in magnetic fields, with explicit expressions of the free energy function and rate function. The proof is based on the Karhunen-Loève expansion of complex-valued Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process.

Geometric effects in nonequilibrium electron transfer statistics in adiabatically driven quantum junctions

Cyclic Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) and adiabatic noncyclic geometric (ANG) effects are investigated in a single electron orbital system connected to two metal contacts with externally driven chemical potential and/or temperatures.The PB contribution does not affect the density matrix evolution, but has quantitative effect on the statistics (fluctuations) of electron transfer. The ANG contribution, on the other hand, affects the net flux across the junction. Unlike the PB, the ANG contribution is non-zero when two parameters are identically driven. Closed analytical expressions are derived for the ANG contribution to the flux, and the PB contribution to the first two leading order fluctuations. Fluctuations can be modified by manipulating the relative phases of the drivings. Interestingly, we find that the fluctuations of the pumped charge do not satisfy the steady state fluctuation theorem in presence of nonzero geometric contribution, but can be recovered for a vanishing geometric contribution even in presence of the external driving.

Stochastic thermodynamics of rapidly driven systems

We present the stochastic thermodynamics analysis of an open quantum system weakly coupled to multiple reservoirs and driven by a rapidly oscillating external field. The analysis is built on a modified stochastic master equation in the Floquet basis. Transition rates are shown to satisfy the local detailed balance involving the entropy flowing out of the reservoirs. The first and second law of thermodynamics are also identified at the trajectory level. Mechanical work is identified by means of initial and final projections on energy eigenstates of the system. We explicitly show that this two step measurement becomes unnecessary in the long time limit. A steady-state fluctuation theorem for the currents and rate of mechanical work is also established. This relation does not require the introduction of a time reversed external driving which is usually needed when considering systems subjected to time asymmetric external fields. This is understood as a consequence of the secular approximation applied in consistency with the large time scale separation between the fast driving oscillations and the slower relaxation dynamics induced by the environment. Our results are finally illustrated on a model describing a thermodynamic engine.