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Updated: Jul 30, 2025

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow
Published on: May 1, 2018
Thermodynamic bounds for diffusion in nonequilibrium systems with multiple timescales
A Plati1,2,3, A Puglisi1,2,4, A Sarracino2,5
1Department of Physics, University of Rome Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Abstract:
We derive a thermodynamic uncertainty relation bounding the mean squared displacement of a Gaussian process with memory, driven out of equilibrium by unbalanced thermal baths and/or by external forces. Our bound is tighter with respect to previous results and also holds at finite time. We apply our findings to experimental and numerical data for a vibrofluidized granular medium, characterized by regimes of anomalous diffusion. In some cases our relation can distinguish between equilibrium and nonequilibrium behavior, a nontrivial inference task, particularly for Gaussian processes.
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