Optimal discrete control: minimizing dissipation in discretely driven nonequilibrium systems

Abstract

Microscopic machines utilize free energy to create and maintain out-of-equilibrium organization in virtually all living things. Often this takes the form of converting the free energy stored in nonequilibrium chemical potential differences into useful work, via a series of reactions involving the binding, chemical catalysis, and unbinding of small molecules. Such chemical reactions occur on timescales much faster than the protein conformational rearrangements they induce. Here, we derive the energetic cost for driving a system out of equilibrium via a series of such effectively instantaneous (and hence discrete) perturbations. This analysis significantly generalizes previously established results, and provides insight into qualitative, as well as quantitative, aspects of finite-time, minimum-dissipation discrete control protocols. We compare our theoretical formalism to an exactly solvable model system and also demonstrate the dissipation reduction achievable in a simple multistable model for a discretely driven molecular machine.

arXiv comment24 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Thermodynamic control -- an old paradigm with new applications
• Optimal Control in Stochastic Thermodynamics
• Active matter under control: Insights from response theory
• Geometry of work fluctuations versus efficiency in microscopic thermal machines
• Steps minimize dissipation in rapidly driven stochastic systems
• Skewed Thermodynamic Geometry and Optimal Free Energy Estimation
• Multidimensional minimum-work control of a 2D Ising model
• Free-energy transduction within autonomous systems
• Optimal control with a strong harmonic trap
• Geometric thermodynamics of reaction-diffusion systems: Thermodynamic trade-off relations and optimal transport for pattern formation
• Hidden energy flows in strongly coupled nonequilibrium systems
• Finite-time bounds on the probabilistic violation of the second law of thermodynamics
• Multiparameter optimal control of F1-ATPase