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Moment generating function bound from detailed fluctuation theorem

Statistical Mechanics 2023-07-05 v1

Abstract

A famous consequence of the detailed fluctuation theorem (FT), p(Σ)/p(Σ)=exp(Σ)p(\Sigma)/p(-\Sigma)=\exp{(\Sigma)}, is the integral FT exp(Σ)=1\langle \exp(-\Sigma)\rangle =1 for a random variable Σ\Sigma and a distribution p(Σ)p(\Sigma). When Σ\Sigma represents the entropy production in thermodynamics, the main outcome of the integral FT is the second law, Σ0\langle \Sigma \rangle \geq 0. However, a full description of the fluctuations of Σ\Sigma might require knowledge of the moment generating function (MGF), G(α):=exp(αΣ)G(\alpha):=\langle \exp(\alpha \Sigma) \rangle. In the context of the detailed FT, we show the MGF is lower bounded in the form G(α)B(α,Σ)G(\alpha)\geq B(\alpha,\langle\Sigma\rangle) for a given mean Σ\langle\Sigma\rangle. As applications, we verify that the bound is satisfied for the entropy produced in the heat exchange problem between two reservoirs mediated by a weakly coupled bosonic mode and a qubit swap engine.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.02998,
  title  = {Moment generating function bound from detailed fluctuation theorem},
  author = {Domingos S. P. Salazar},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.02998},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T08:33:20.743Z