English

Stochastic thermodynamics of a tagged particle within a harmonic chain

Statistical Mechanics 2015-06-23 v2

Abstract

We study the stochastic thermodynamics of an overdamped harmonic chain, which can be viewed equivalently as a 1D Rouse chain or as an approximate model of single file diffusion. We discuss mainly two levels of description of this system: the Markovian level for which the trajectories of all the particles of the chain are known and the non-Markovian level in which only the motion of a tagged particle is available. For each case, we analyze the energy dissipation and its dependence on initial conditions. Surprisingly, we find that the average coarse-grained entropy production rate can become transiently negative when an oscillating force is applied to the tagged particle. This occurs due to memory effects as shown in a framework based on path integrals or on a generalized Langevin equation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1411.0844,
  title  = {Stochastic thermodynamics of a tagged particle within a harmonic chain},
  author = {David Lacoste and Michael A. Lomholt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1411.0844},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

17 pages, 7 figures, REVTeX, minor revisions