Journal
JOURNAL OF STATISTICAL PHYSICS
Volume 150, Issue 1, Pages 181-203Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10955-012-0676-6
Keywords
Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics; Stochastic processes; Markov processes; Optimal control
Categories
Funding
- Center of Excellence Analysis and Dynamics of the Academy of Finland
- European Science Foundation
- FARO
- PRIN [2009PYYZM5]
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We derive the equations governing the protocols minimizing the heat released by a continuous-time Markov jump process on a one-dimensional countable state space during a transition between assigned initial and final probability distributions in a finite time horizon. In particular, we identify the hypotheses on the transition rates under which the optimal control strategy and the probability distribution of the Markov jump problem obey a system of differential equations of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman-type. As the state-space mesh tends to zero, these equations converge to those satisfied by the diffusion process minimizing the heat released in the Langevin formulation of the same problem. We also show that in full analogy with the continuum case, heat minimization is equivalent to entropy production minimization. Thus, our results may be interpreted as a refined version of the second law of thermodynamics.
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