Stochastic control in microscopic nonequilibrium systems

Abstract

Quantifying energy flows at nanometer scales promises to guide future research in a variety of disciplines, from microscopic control and manipulation, to autonomously operating molecular machines. A general understanding of the thermodynamic costs of nonequilibrium processes would illuminate the design principles for efficient microscopic machines. Considerable effort has gone into finding and classifying the deterministic control protocols that drive a system rapidly between states at minimum energetic cost. But for autonomous microscopic systems, driving processes are themselves stochastic. Here we generalize a linear-response framework to incorporate such protocol variability, deriving a lower bound on the work that is realized at finite protocol duration, far from the quasistatic limit. Our findings are confirmed in model systems. This theory provides a thermodynamic rationale for rapid operation, independent of functional incentives.

arXiv comment11 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Theory of nonequilibrium free energy transduction by molecular machines
• Geometrical Bounds of the Irreversibility in Markovian Systems
• Thermodynamic control -- an old paradigm with new applications
• Optimal Control in Stochastic Thermodynamics
• Energy Dissipation Bounds for Autonomous Thermodynamic Cycles
• Optimal Control of Rotary Motors
• Optimal discrete control: minimizing dissipation in discretely driven nonequilibrium systems
• Landauer Principle and Thermodynamics of Computation
• Free-energy transduction within autonomous systems
• Analytical solution for optimal protocols of weak drivings
• Modeling work-speed-accuracy trade-offs in a stochastic rotary machine
• Efficiently driving F${}_1$ molecular motor in experiment by suppressing nonequilibrium variation