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Proof of the finite-time thermodynamic uncertainty relation for steady-state currents
Jordan M Horowitz1, Todd R Gingrich1
1Physics of Living Systems Group, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Abstract:
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation offers a universal energetic constraint on the relative magnitude of current fluctuations in nonequilibrium steady states. However, it has only been derived for long observation times. Here, we prove a recently conjectured finite-time thermodynamic uncertainty relation for steady-state current fluctuations. Our proof is based on a quadratic bound to the large deviation rate function for currents in the limit of a large ensemble of many copies.
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