English

Path integral analysis of Jarzynski's equality: Analytical results

Statistical Mechanics 2009-03-12 v1

Abstract

We apply path integrals to study nonequilibrium work theorems in the context of Brownian dynamics, deriving in particular the equations of motion governing the most typical and most dominant trajectories. For the analytically soluble cases of a moving harmonic potential and a harmonic oscillator with time-dependent natural frequency, we find such trajectories, evaluate the work-weighted propagators, and validate Jarzynski's equality.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0812.0109,
  title  = {Path integral analysis of Jarzynski's equality: Analytical results},
  author = {David D. L. Minh and Artur B. Adib},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.0109},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

10 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:46:42.889Z