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arXiv · 1906.04171

Optimal protocols and universal time-energy bound in Brownian thermodynamics

Yoseline Rosales-Cabara·Giovanni Manfredi·Gabriel Schnoering·Paul-Antoine Hervieux·Laurent Mertz·Cyriaque Genet
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Abstract

We propose an optimization strategy to control the dynamics of a stochastic system transferred from one thermal equilibrium to another and apply it experimentally to a Brownian particle in an optical trap under compression. Based on a variational principle that treats the transfer duration and the expended work on an equal footing, our strategy leads to a family of protocols that are either optimally cheap for a given duration or optimally fast for a given energetic cost. This approach unveils a universal relation $\Delta t\,\Delta W \ge (\Delta t\,\Delta W)_{\rm opt}$ between the transfer duration and the expended work. We verify experimentally that the lower bound is reached only with the optimized protocols.

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Yoseline Rosales-Cabara, Giovanni Manfredi, Gabriel Schnoering, Paul-Antoine Hervieux, Laurent Mertz, Cyriaque Genet. 2019-06-09. Optimal protocols and universal time-energy bound in Brownian thermodynamics. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevresearch.2.012012

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