Symmetries of cyclic work distributions for an isolated harmonic oscillator

DOI10.1088/0143-0807/33/6/1789zbMATH Open1286.82017arXiv1210.2548OpenAlexW2095065096MaRDI QIDQ2867207FDOQ2867207

Authors: Ian J. Ford, David S. Minor, Simon J. Binnie 

Publication date: 10 December 2013

Published in: European Journal of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We have calculated the distribution of work $W$ done on a 1-d harmonic oscillator that is initially in canonical equilibrium at temperature $T$, then thermally isolated and driven by an arbitrary time-dependent cyclic spring constant $kappa(t)$, and demonstrated that it satisfies $$, where $$, in both classical and quantum dynamics. This differs from the celebrated Crooks relation of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, since the latter relates distributions for forward and backward protocols of driving. We show that it is a special case of a symmetry that holds for non-cyclic work processes on the isolated oscillator, and that consideration of time reversal invariance shows it to be consistent with the Crooks relation. We have verified that the symmetry holds in both classical and quantum treatments of the dynamics, but that inherent uncertainty in the latter case leads to greater fluctuations in work performed for a given process.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.2548

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zbMATH Keywords

symmetriesnonequilibrium thermodynamicswork distributionCrooks fluctuation-dissipation relationforward and backward protocols of drivingisolated harmonic oscillatorJarzynski inequality

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum dynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C10) Classical dynamic and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C05) Exactly solvable dynamic models in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C23)

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• Time-reversal symmetric work distributions for closed quantum dynamics in the histories framework
• Asymmetry of the work probability distribution

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