Strengthened second law for periodic processes

Jake Schaefer; Ben Ansbacher; Jan Korbel; David H. Wolpert

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arXiv · 2609.00639

Strengthened second law for periodic processes

Jake Schaefer·Ben Ansbacher·Jan Korbel·David H. Wolpert

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Abstract

Many physical systems evolve under periodic driving: the same control protocol is applied again and again, even though the state of the system itself need not return to where it started after each cycle. We derive a physics-independent lower bound on the entropy production of \emph{any} periodic process modeled by the evolution of an initial distribution $p_0$ by a repeated application of the same map $G$. This is a strict strengthening of the second law of thermodynamics for periodic processes. It does not require that the single-period dynamics arise from a CTMC, satisfy (local) detailed balance, or be subject to other typical restrictions. We discuss its application to spins in the Curie-Weiss model and Deterministic Finite Automata, with possible extensions to other uniform computers.

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Jake Schaefer, Ben Ansbacher, Jan Korbel, David H. Wolpert. 2026-09-01. Strengthened second law for periodic processes. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00639

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