Andreas Dechant

Abstract We derive a universal bound on generalized currents in Langevin systems in terms of the mean-square fluctuations of the current and the total entropy production. This bound generalizes a relation previously found by Barato et al to arbitrary times and transient states. Using the bound, we define a new efficiency for stochastic transport, which measures how close a given system comes to saturating the bound. The existence of such a bounded efficiency implies that stochastic transport is

We present an approach to response around arbitrary out-of-equilibrium states in the form of a fluctuation-response inequality (FRI). We study the response of an observable to a perturbation of the underlying stochastic dynamics. We find that the magnitude of the response is bounded from above by the fluctuations of the observable in the unperturbed system and the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the probability densities describing the perturbed and the unperturbed system. This establishes a

Abstract We extend a class of recently derived thermodynamic uncertainty relations to vector-valued observables. In contrast to the scalar-valued observables examined previously, this multidimensional thermodynamic uncertainty relation provides a natural way to study currents in high-dimensional systems and to obtain relations between different observables. Our proof is based on the generalized Crámer–Rao inequality, which we interpret as a relation between physical observables and the Fisher in

We propose and theoretically investigate a nanomechanical heat engine. We show how a levitated nanoparticle in an optical trap inside a cavity can be used to realize a Stirling cycle in the underdamped regime. The all-optical approach enables fast and flexible control of all thermodynamical parameters and the efficient optimization of the performance of the engine. We develop a systematic optimization procedure to determine optimal driving protocols. Further, we perform numerical simulations wit

We derive a bound on generalized currents for Langevin systems in terms of the total entropy production in the system and its environment. For overdamped dynamics, any generalized current is bounded by the total rate of entropy production. We show that this entropic bound on the magnitude of generalized currents imposes power-efficiency tradeoff relations for ratchets in contact with a heat bath: Maximum efficiency-Carnot efficiency for a Smoluchowski-Feynman ratchet and unity for a flashing or

Abstract We investigate the problem of minimizing the entropy production for a physical process that can be described in terms of a Markov jump dynamics. We show that, without any further constraints, a given time-evolution may be realized at arbitrarily small entropy production, yet at the expense of diverging activity. For a fixed activity, we find that the dynamics that minimizes the entropy production is driven by conservative forces. The value of the minimum entropy production is expressed

We introduce a continuous time-reversal operation which connects the time-forward and time-reversed trajectories in the steady state of an irreversible Markovian dynamics via a continuous family of stochastic dynamics. This continuous time-reversal allows us to derive a tighter version of the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) involving observables evaluated relative to their local mean value. Moreover, the family of dynamics realizing the continuous time-reversal contains an equilibrium d

The Green-Kubo formula relates the spatial diffusion coefficient to the stationary velocity autocorrelation function. We derive a generalization of the Green-Kubo formula that is valid for systems with long-range or nonstationary correlations for which the standard approach is no longer valid. For the systems under consideration, the velocity autocorrelation function ⟨v(t+τ)v(t)⟩ asymptotically exhibits a certain scaling behavior and the diffusion is anomalous, ⟨x2(t)⟩≃2Dνtν. We show how both th

Two qualitatively different ways of driving a physical system out of equilibrium, i.e., time-dependent and nonconservative forcing, are reflected by the decomposition of the system's entropy production into excess and housekeeping parts. We show that the difference between these two types of driving gives rise to a geometric formulation in terms of two orthogonal contributions to the currents in the system. This geometric picture in a natural way leads to variational expressions for both the exc

We derive a simple formula for the fluctuations of the time average x(t) around the thermal mean <x>(eq) for overdamped brownian motion in a binding potential U(x). Using a backward Fokker-Planck equation, introduced by Szabo, Schulten, and Schulten in the context of reaction kinetics, we show that for ergodic processes these finite measurement time fluctuations are determined by the Boltzmann measure. For the widely applicable logarithmic potential, ergodicity is broken. We quantify the large n

We derive a generalization of the Wiener-Khinchin theorem for nonstationary processes by introducing a time-dependent spectral density that is related to the time-averaged power. We use the nonstationary theorem to investigate aging processes with asymptotically scale-invariant correlation functions. As an application, we analyze the power spectrum of three paradigmatic models of anomalous diffusion: scaled Brownian motion, fractional Brownian motion, and diffusion in a logarithmic potential. We

The transport of cold atoms in shallow optical lattices is characterized by slow, nonstationary momentum relaxation. We develop a projector operator method able to derive, in this case, a generalized Smoluchowski equation for the position variable. We show that this explicitly non-markovian equation can be written as a systematic expansion involving higher-order derivatives. We use the latter to compute arbitrary moments of the spatial distribution and analyze their multifractal properties.

We consider an overdamped Brownian particle moving in a confining asymptotically logarithmic potential, which supports a normalized Boltzmann equilibrium density. We derive analytical expressions for the two-time correlation function and the fluctuations of the time-averaged position of the particle for large but finite times. We characterize the occurrence of aging and nonergodic behavior as a function of the depth of the potential, and we support our predictions with extensive Langevin simulat

For a generic overdamped Langevin dynamics driven out of equilibrium by both time-dependent and nonconservative forces, the entropy production rate can be decomposed into two positive terms, termed excess and housekeeping entropy. However, this decomposition is not unique: There are two distinct decompositions, one due to Hatano and Sasa, the other one due to Maes and Netočný. Here we establish the connection between these two decompositions and provide a simple, geometric interpretation. We sho

We derive a relation between the dissipation in a stochastic dynamics and the Wasserstein distance. We show that the minimal amount of dissipation required to transform an initial state to a final state during a diffusion process is given by the Wasserstein distance between the two states, divided by the total time of the process. This relation implies a lower bound on the dissipation for any diffusion process in terms of its initial and final state. Using a lower bound on the Wasserstein distan