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arXiv · 1608.07757

Shortcuts to isothermality and nonequilibrium work relations

Geng Li·H. T. Quan·Z. C. Tu
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Abstract

In conventional thermodynamics, it is widely acknowledged that the realization of an isothermal process for a system requires a quasi-static controlling protocol. Here we propose and design a strategy to realize a finite-rate isothermal transition from an equilibrium state to another one with same temperature, which is named shortcut to isothermality~(STI). By using STI, we unexpectedly derive three nonequilibrium work relations, including an identity between the free energy difference and the mean work due to the potential of the original system, a generalized Jarzynski equality, and the inverse relationship between the irreversible work and the total driving time. We numerically confirm these three relations by considering the motion of a Brownian particle trapped in a harmonic potential and dragged by a time-dependent force.

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Geng Li, H. T. Quan, Z. C. Tu. 2017-07-19. Shortcuts to isothermality and nonequilibrium work relations. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.96.012144

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