Frédéric Douarche | Searcharxiv

arXiv2007

Experimental study of work fluctuations in a harmonic oscillator

The work fluctuations of a harmonic oscillator in contact with a thermostat and driven out of equilibrium by an external force are studied experimentally. For the work both the transient and stationary state fluctuation theorems hold. The finite time corrections are very different from those of a first order Langevin equation. The heat and work fluctuations are studied when a periodic forcing is applied to the oscillator. The importance of the choice of the ''good work'' to compute the free energy from the Jarzinsky equality is discussed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

A simple proof of the Jarzynski equality?

In this short communication, I give a very simple derivation of the Jarzynski equality, which allows to compute the free energy difference of a body, which is driven between two equilibrium states $A$ and $B$ by an external (time-dependent) force, from the probability distribution function of the work done on the system, regardless of the nature of the transformation (reversible or irreversible) between the states $A$ and $B$. It perhaps throws some light on the debate recently started by Cohen and coworkers, and perhaps explains why all the experiments which has been performed in order to test the Jarzynski equality are successful, even in very defavorable (irreversible) cases (and more strikingly, when the state $B$ is not an equilibrium one).

cond-mat.stat-mech↗