Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Ugur Cetiner, Jeremy Gunawardena
Summary: In this study, the properties of steady-state probabilities are investigated. It is found that steady-state probabilities are related to the entropy along minimal paths and can be expressed as averages over a probability distribution on spanning trees. By applying Arrhenius rates to the arboreal distribution, a thermodynamic interpretation for steady-state probabilities is provided. This approach extends equilibrium statistical mechanics and reorganizes the complexity of the expression.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Koushik Goswami
Summary: By modeling the active noise as a generalized form of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, the dynamics and work distribution of a Brownian particle in a Gaussian active bath are theoretically investigated, revealing an asymptotic approach to a superdiffusive regime. Two protocols for performing work on the system are considered, with exact expressions for the probability distribution function of work obtained, showing anomalous scaling with time. Fluctuation relations of work are studied, revealing a non-conventional FR emerging in the long-time limit, and recovering known results for the usual OUP bath.
PHYSICA A-STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Wenqi Lin, Yi-Hung Liao, Pik -Yin Lai, Yonggun Jun
Summary: In this experiment, we demonstrate that a Brownian gyrator of a colloidal particle confined by a two-dimensional harmonic potential with different temperatures on orthogonal axes can function as an autonomous heat engine, extracting work from an optical feedback trap-generated heat bath. The results confirm the theoretical predictions of thermodynamic currents and validate the possibility of achieving Carnot efficiency, as well as the trade-off relation between power and efficiency. Furthermore, the study shows that current fluctuations and entropy production rate remain constant in the steady state and their product near the Carnot efficiency approaches the lower bound of the thermodynamic uncertainty relation.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Elijah Thimsen
Summary: This work elucidates methods based on nonequilibrium thermodynamics to predict the stationary states of chemical reactions in nonequilibrium plasma and the limits for energy conversion efficiency, using CO2 splitting as an example reaction. It was found that the probability of observing reactants or products increases with the energy dissipated by that side of the reaction as heat through collisions with hot electrons.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Dominik Safranek, Dario Rosa, Felix C. Binder
Summary: Energy extraction is an important task in thermodynamics. In quantum physics, ergotropy is used to measure the extractable work under cyclic Hamiltonian control. However, existing methods require perfect knowledge of the initial state, which is not applicable to unknown or untrusted quantum sources. The authors propose a new notion of ergotropy that can be applied when only limited knowledge of the quantum states is available.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Waldemar Kaiser, Veljko Jankovi, Nenad Vukmirovi, Alessio Gagliardi
Summary: This work presents a novel theoretical description of the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of charge separation in organic solar cells, quantifying for the first time the difference between nonequilibrium and equilibrium free energy profiles. The study reveals that charge separation in efficient OSCs proceeds via a cold but nonequilibrated pathway for delocalized electron-hole pairs at a small disorder, with large Gibbs entropy and initial electron-hole distance contributing to efficient charge separation.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Michael H. Peters
Summary: The paper discusses the application of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics or molecular theory in transport equations of mass, momentum, energy, and entropy, and the closure of these equations leading to phenomenological laws. It also demonstrates how the complete set of transport equations can be simplified under physically restrictive assumptions and transformed into a new set of nonequilibrium thermodynamic functions.
Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Regina K. Schmitt, Patrick P. Potts, Heiner Linke, Jonas Johansson, Peter Samuelsson, Marc Rico-Pasto, Felix Ritort
Summary: We investigate the work obtained in single molecule unfolding-folding experiments with feedback using a theoretical approach. A two-state model is employed to describe the full work distribution from discrete to continuous feedback. The impact of feedback is captured by a detailed fluctuation theorem that considers the acquired information. Analytical expressions for the average work extraction and an experimentally measurable upper bound are derived, which become tighter in the continuous feedback limit. The parameters for maximum power or rate of work extraction are also determined. Despite the simplicity of our two-state model, it shows qualitative agreement with Monte Carlo simulations of DNA hairpin dynamics.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Shun Otsubo, Sreekanth K. Manikandan, Takahiro Sagawa, Supriya Krishnamurthy
Summary: The authors propose a scheme to infer the time-dependent entropy production rate and entropy production from trajectory data. They developed an efficient algorithm using machine learning techniques to continuously estimate the entropy production rate. This is of great significance for studying non-equilibrium systems.
COMMUNICATIONS PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Michael Bley, Joachim Dzubiella
Summary: The study focused on the non-equilibrium behavior during fast diffusion-influenced polymerization, examining the impact of excess free energy on the system properties through computer simulations and statistical mechanics concepts.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Jonathan Asher Pachter, Ken A. Dill
Summary: Important models in nonequilibrium statistical physics often make use of a commonly used, but frequently overlooked, near-equilibrium approximation. However, this approximation fails to hold in far-from-equilibrium systems. A more principled approach would involve deriving corrections for rate fluctuations from an underlying dynamical model, rather than assuming a particular form. Applying maximum caliber as the underlying principle, we derive such corrections for non-equilibrium processes, particularly important for heavily driven systems.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Hiroki Murakami, Norimasa Yamada
Summary: Fitts studied information capacity and transfer in the speed-accuracy motor paradigm using a theoretical approach based on information theory. By estimating information entropy and mutual information of multiple human movement trajectories, Fitts found that information was processed from the first half of the trajectory in difficult tasks.
Article
Optics
Alessandra Colla, Heinz-Peter Breuer
Summary: We develop a general theory for the thermodynamic behavior of open quantum systems beyond perturbation theory. Our approach is based on the exact time-local quantum master equation and the principle of minimal dissipation. This enables us to define work, heat, and entropy production, formulate the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and establish the connection between violations of the second law and quantum non-Markovianity.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Faezeh Khodabandehlou, Christian Maes, Karel Netocny
Summary: We discuss when and why the steady nonequilibrium heat capacity vanishes with temperature using general arguments and examples. The framework of Markov jump processes on finite connected graphs is used, where the condition of local detailed balance helps identify the heat fluxes, and the discreteness enables a nondegenerate stationary distribution at absolute zero. Additionally, a dynamic condition is needed for the nonequilibrium extension of the Third Law to ensure that the low-temperature dynamical activity and accessibility of the dominant state remain sufficiently high.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Mathematics, Applied
A. O. Lopes, R. Ruggiero
Summary: The relative entropy plays a significant role in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and information theory. By considering the action of the dual of the Ruelle operator, the interaction between equilibrium probabilities can be achieved, leading to nonequilibrium states that can be seen as thermodynamic operations.
QUALITATIVE THEORY OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS
(2022)