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Thermodynamic bounds on time-reversal asymmetry
Shiling Liang1,2, Simone Pigolotti2
1Institute of Physics, School of Basic Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Physical Review. E
|January 20, 2024
Summary
This study introduces a new measure for time-reversal asymmetry in systems, providing a bound related to the driving force. This helps quantify irreversibility and understand directed processes in thermodynamics.
Area of Science:
- Thermodynamics
- Statistical Physics
- Non-equilibrium Systems
Background:
- Quantifying irreversibility in finite information systems is a key challenge in stochastic thermodynamics.
- Understanding time-reversal asymmetry is crucial for analyzing non-equilibrium processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce a novel observable to quantify time-reversal asymmetry between system states.
- Establish a theoretical bound for this asymmetry based on thermodynamic driving forces.
Main Methods:
- Development of a new observable for time-reversal asymmetry.
- Derivation of a bound relating asymmetry to total cycle affinity.
- Extension of bounds to directed fluxes and cross-correlations.
Main Results:
- A central result provides a bound on time-reversal asymmetry.
- This bound is expressed in terms of the total cycle affinity driving the system.
- The findings yield further thermodynamic bounds on related asymmetries.
Conclusions:
- The introduced observable offers a method to quantify irreversibility.
- The derived bounds advance the understanding of non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
- This work has implications for analyzing directed fluxes and coarse-grained dynamics.
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