Related papers: Minimal dissipation in processes far from equilibr…
Thermodynamics of small systems has become an important field of statistical physics. They are driven out of equilibrium by a control, and the question is naturally posed how such a control can be optimized. We show that optimization…
Optimizing the energy efficiency of driving processes provides valuable insights into the underlying physics and is of crucial importance for numerous applications, from biological processes to the design of machines and robots. Knowledge…
A fundamental result of thermodynamic geometry is that the optimal, minimal-work protocol that drives a nonequilibrium system between two thermodynamic states in the slow-driving limit is given by a geodesic of the friction tensor, a…
One of the main objectives of science is the recognition of a general pattern in a particular phenomenon in some particular regime. In this work, this is achieved with the analytical expression for the optimal protocol that minimizes the…
The investigation of optimal processes has a long history in the field of thermodynamics. It is well known that finite-time processes that minimize dissipation often exhibit discontinuities. We use a combination of numerical and analytical…
Optimal (reversible) processes in thermodynamics can be modelled as step-by-step processes, where the system is successively thermalized with respect to different Hamiltonians by an external thermal bath. However, in practice interactions…
We characterize finite-time thermodynamic processes of multidimensional quadratic overdamped systems. Analytic expressions are provided for heat, work, and dissipation for any evolution of the system covariance matrix. The Bures-Wasserstein…
The realization of efficient micro-machines built from active matter requires precise thermodynamic control far from equilibrium. Despite theoretical progress, the focus on single-parameter driving, coupled with strict theoretical…
Optimal transport theory, originally developed in the 18th century for civil engineering, has since become a powerful optimization framework across disciplines, from generative AI to cell biology. In physics, it has recently been shown to…
We analyze the control of the motion of a charged particle by means of an external electric field. The system is constrained to move along a given direction. The goal of the control is to change the speed of the particle in a fixed time…
The development of efficient artificial nanodevices poses challenges which are of fundamental and technological nature. Recent progress has been made in the context of finite-time thermodynamics. A central question in finite-time…
Considering the paradigmatic driven Brownian motion, we perform extensive numerical analysis on the performance of optimal linear-response processes far from equilibrium. We focus on the overdamped regime where exact optimal processes are…
Biological molecular machines convert free energy between different forms in cells, often at high efficiency. Optimal control theory provides a framework to elucidate design principles governing energetically efficient driving. Here, we use…
We present an analysis of the work performed on a system of interest that is kept thermally isolated during the switching of a control parameter. We show that there exists, for a certain class of systems, a finite-time family of switching…
Microscopic machines utilize free energy to create and maintain out-of-equilibrium organization in virtually all living things. Often this takes the form of converting the free energy stored in nonequilibrium chemical potential differences…
In this work we explore the use of thermodynamic length to improve the performance of experimental protocols. In particular, we implement Landauer erasure on a driven electron level in a semiconductor quantum dot, and compare the standard…
We explore the thermodynamic geometry of a simple system that models the bistable dynamics of nucleic acid hairpins in single molecule force-extension experiments. Near equilibrium, optimal (minimum-dissipation) driving protocols are…
Biological and engineered systems operate by coupling function to the transfer of heat and/or particles down a thermal or chemical gradient. In idealized \textit{deterministically} driven systems, thermodynamic control can be exerted…
Active matter constantly dissipates energy to power the self-propulsion of its microscopic constituents. This opens the door to designing innovative cyclic engines without any equilibrium equivalent. We offer a consistent thermodynamic…
The article is devoted to the problem of applying the maximum principle for finding optimal control parameters in simulation tasks of interest for a variety of engineering and industrial systems and processes. Especially important is the…