arXiv subjects

P. S. Pal

Publications and source records attributed to P. S. Pal.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Effect of reactive targets on diffusive transport with intermittent restarts

We study search processes in a complex environment using the strategy of stochastic resetting. A common occurrence in these environments is targets with finite reactivity. Stochastic resetting has emerged as a powerful mechanism for optimizing search processes by curtailing long, unproductive excursions inherent to diffusive dynamics. Most theoretical studies, however, assume perfectly absorbing targets -- an idealization that overlooks the finite reactivity commonly encountered in realistic chemical and biological systems. In this work, we investigate the interplay between stochastic resetting and finite-target reactivity in reaction - diffusion processes. Considering a one-dimensional system with multiple reactive targets, we demonstrated that the target reactivity modifies the optimization landscape. We uncover distinct regimes in which resetting enhances transport efficiency towards specific targets based on their chemical kinetics. As a consequence, the optimal resetting rate becomes intrinsically reactivity dependent. Our results identify target reactivity as a crucial control parameter governing stochastic transport and provide insights into reaction-diffusion processes in complex media.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Mobility Anisotropy Reshapes Self-Propelled Motion

We exactly solve the nonequilibrium dynamics of a harmonically trapped self-propelled particle with anisotropic translational mobility in two dimensions, relevant to rodlike microswimmers and wheeled robots. The mean displacement and MSD reveal a quasi-steady plateau with vanishing fluctuations in the high-persistence regime. An exact calculation of steady-state fourth moment yields a negative excess kurtosis that varies non-monotonically with the ratio of mechanical to rotational relaxation timescales. This gives rise to a strictly sub-Gaussian steady-state position distribution, in which the particle with anisotropic mobility, in high persistence regime, is displaced into the high-potential region lying outside the stationary contour set by the activity and harmonic confinement. This is further corroborated by the relaxation of the MSD from the quasi-steady plateau to the steady-state regime.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2025

Micro Heat Engines With Hydrodynamic Flow

Hydrodynamic flows are often generated in colloidal suspensions. Since colloidal particles are frequently used to construct stochastic heat engines, we study how the hydrodynamic flows influence the output parameters of the engine. We study a single colloidal particle confined in a harmonic trap with time-periodic stiffness that provides the engine protocol, in presence of a steady linear shear flow. The nature of the flow (circular, elliptic or hyperbolic) is externally tunable. At long times, the work done by the flow field is shown to dominate over the thermodynamic (Jarzynski) work done by the trap, if there is an appreciable deviation from the circular flow. The work by the time dependent trap is the sole contributor only for a perfectly circular flow. We also study an extended model, where a microscopic spinning particle (spinor) is tethered close to the colloidal particle, i.e. the working substance of the engine, such that the flow generated by the spinor influences the dynamics of the colloidal particle. We simulate the system and explore the influence of such a flow on the thermodynamics of the engine. We further find that for larger spinning frequencies, the work done by the flow dominates and the system cannot produce thermodynamic work.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Endoreversible Otto engines at maximal power

Despite its idealizations, thermodynamics has proven its power as a predictive theory for practical applications. In particular, the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency provides a benchmark for any real engine operating at maximal power. Here we further develop the analysis of endoreversible Otto engines. For a generic class of working mediums, whose internal energy is proportional to some power of the temperature, we find that no engine can achieve the Carnot efficiency at finite power. However, we also find that for the specific example of photonic engines the efficiency at maximal power is larger than the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

High-resolution spectroscopy of a surge in an emerging flux region

High-spectral resolution observations using the VTT echelle spectrograph in the chromospheric H$α$ line were obtained in the early growth phase of active region NOAA 12722. Noise-stripped H$α$ line profiles yield maps of line-core and bisector velocities, which were contrasted with velocities inferred from Cloud Model inversions. The SDO provided additional continuum images, line-of-sight (LOS) magnetograms, and UV/EUV images, which link the different solar atmospheric layers. The active region started as a bipolar region with continuous flux emergence when a new flux system emerged in the leading part during the VTT observations, resulting in two homologous surges. While flux cancellation at the base of the surges provided the energy for ejecting the cool plasma, strong proper motions of the leading pores changed the magnetic field topology making the region susceptible for surging. Despite the surge activity in the leading part, an arch filament system in the trailing part of the old flux remained stable. Thus, stable and violently expelled mass-loaded ascending magnetic structures can co-exist in close proximity. Investigating the height dependence of LOS velocities revealed the existence of neighboring strong up- and downflows. However, downflows occur with a time lag. The opacity of the ejected cool plasma decreases with distance from the base of the surge while the speed of the ejecta increases. The location at which the surge becomes invisible in H$α$ corresponds to the interface where the surge brightens in He II 304. Broad-shoulders and dual-lobed H$α$ profiles suggest accelerated/decelerated and highly structured LOS plasma flows. Significantly broadened H$α$ profiles imply significant heating at the base of the surges, which is also supported by bright kernels in UV/EUV images uncovered by swaying motions of dark fibrils at the base of the surges.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2020

Stochastic thermodynamics of relativistic Brownian motion

Physical scenarios that require a relativistic treatment are ubiquitous in nature, ranging from cosmological objects to charge carriers in Dirac materials. Interestingly all of these situations have in common that the systems typically operate very far from thermal equilibrium. Therefore, if and how the framework of stochastic thermodynamics applies at relativistic energies is a salient question. In the present work we generalize the notions of stochastic heat and work for the relativistic Langevin equation and derive the fluctuation theorems without and with feedback. For processes with feedback we consider the ramifications of the lack of simultaneity of events in the inertial frames of observer and Brownian particles, and we argue that the framework of absolute irreversibility is instrumental to avoid acausal considerations. The analysis is concluded with a few remarks on potential experimental applications in graphene.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Multi-wavelength observations of the BL Lac object Fermi J1544-0649: one year after its awakening

We report observations of a transient source \fermi\ from radio to \grs. \fermi\ was discovered by the {\it Fermi-LAT} in May 2017. Follow-up {\it Swift-XRT} observations revealed three flaring episodes through March 2018, and the peak X-ray flux is about $10^3$ higher than the {\it ROSAT all-sky survey (RASS)} flux upper limit. Optical spectral measurements taken by the {\it Magellan 6.5-m telescope} and the {\it Lick-Shane telescope} both show a largely featureless spectrum, strengthening the BL Lac interpretation first proposed by \citet{Bruni18}. The optical and mid-infrared (MIR) emission goes to a higher state in 2018, when the flux in high energies goes down to a lower level. Our {\it RATAN-600m} measurements at 4.8~GHz and 8.2~GHz do not indicate any significant radio flux variation over the monitoring seasons in 2017 and 2018, nor deviate from the archival {\it NVSS} flux level. During GeV flaring times, the spectrum is very hard ($Γ_γ\sim$1.7) in the GeV band and at times also very hard (($Γ_{\rm X}\lesssim2$) in the X-rays, similar to a high-synchrotron-peak (or even an extreme) BL Lac object, making \fermi\ a good target for ground-based {\it Cherenkov telescopes}.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

A stochastic heat engine using an active particle

The topic of microscopic heat engine has undergone intensive research in recent years. Microscopic heat engines can exploit thermal as well as active fluctuations to extract thermodynamic work. We investigate the properties of a microscopic Stirling's engine that uses an active (self-propelling) particle as a working substance, in contact with two thermal baths. It is shown that the presence of activity leads to an enhanced performance of the engine. The efficiency can be improved by increasing the activity strength for all cycle time, including the non-quasistatic regime. We verify that the analytical results agree very well with our simulations. The variation of efficiency with the temperature difference between the two thermal baths has also been explored. The optimum region of operation of the engine has been deduced, by using its efficient power as a quantifier. Finally, a simple model is provided that emulates the behaviour of a flywheel driven by this engine.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2019

Maxwell's Demon, Szilard Engine and Landauer Principle

The second law of thermodynamics is probabilistic in nature. Its formulation requires that the state of a system be described by a probability distribution. A natural question, thereby, arises as to whether a prior knowledge about the state of the system affects the second law. This question has now been nurtured over a century and its inception was done by C. Maxwell through his famous thought experiment wherein comes the idea of Maxwell's demon. The next important step in this direction was provided by L. Szilard who demonstrated a theoretical model for an information engine incorporating Maxwell's demon. The final step that lead to the inter-linkage between information theory and thermodynamics was through Landauer's principle of information erasure that established the fact that information is physical. Here we will present an overview of these three major works that laid the foundations of information thermodynamics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2018

Stochastic Heat Engine Powered By Active Dissipation

Thermodynamics of nanoscale devices is an active area of research. Despite their noisy surrounding they often produce mechanical work (e.g. micro-heat engines), display rectified Brownian motion (e.g. molecular motors). This invokes research in terms of experimentally quantifiable thermodynamic efficiencies. Here, a Brownian particle is driven by a harmonic confinement with time-periodic contraction and expansion. The system produces work by being alternately (time-periodically) connected to baths with different dissipations. We analyze the system theoretically using stochastic thermodynamics. Averages of thermodynamic quantities like work, heat, efficiency, entropy are found analytically for long cycle times. Simulations are also performed in various cycle-times. They show excellent agreement with analytical calculations in the long cycle time limit. Distributions of work, efficiency, and large deviation function for efficiency are studied using simulations. We believe that the experimental realization of our model is possible.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2017

A non-thermal pulsed X-ray emission of AR~Scorpii

We report the analysis result of UV/X-ray emission from AR~Scorpii, which is an intermediate polar (IP) composed of a magnetic white dwarf and a M-type star, with the XMM-Newton data. The X-ray/UV emission clearly shows a large variation over the orbit, and their intensity maximum (or minimum) is located at the superior conjunction (or inferior conjunction) of the M-type star orbit. The hardness ratio of the X-ray emission shows a small variation over the orbital phase, and shows no indication of the absorption by an accretion column. These properties are naturally explained by the emission from the M-type star surface rather than from the accretion column on the WD's star similar to the usual IPs. Beside, the observed X-ray emission also modulates with WD's spin with a pulse fraction of $\sim 14\%$. The peak position is aligned in the optical/UV/X-ray band. This supports the hypothesis that the electrons in AR~Scorpii are accelerated to a relativistic speed, and emit non-thermal photons via the synchrotron radiation. In the X-ray bands, the evidence of the power-law spectrum is found in the pulsed component, although the observed emission is dominated by the optically thin thermal plasma emissions with several different temperatures. It is considered that the magnetic dissipation/reconnection process on the M-type star surface heats up the plasma to a temperature of several keV, and also accelerates the electrons to the relativistic speed. The relativistic electrons are trapped in the WD's closed magnetic field lines by the magnetic mirror effect. In this model, the observed pulsed component is explained by the emissions from the first magnetic mirror point.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Landauer bound for erasure using non-ideal gas

Landauer principle states that erasure of $N$ bit information requires an entropic cost of $Nk_B \ln 2$. This fact can easily be demonstrated by relaxation of an ideal gas consisting of $N$ particles inside a fixed volume. In this paper we discuss the modification of Landauer bound when we use non-ideal gas with inter-particle interactions for erasure procedure. We have found that the bound on the entropy production can be lowered when the interaction between particles is square-well potential.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2017

Interacting Multi-particle Classical Szilard Engine

Szilard engine(SZE) is one of the best example of how information can be used to extract work from a system. Initially, the working substance of SZE was considered to be a single particle. Later on, researchers has extended the studies of SZE to multi-particle systems and even to quantum regime. Here we present a detailed study of classical SZE consisting of $N$ particles with inter-particle interactions, i.e., the working substance is a low density non-ideal gas and compare the work extraction with respect to SZE with non-interacting multi particle system as working substance. We have considered two cases of interactions namely: (i) hard core interactions and (ii) square well interaction. Our study reveals that work extraction is less when more particles are interacting through hard core interactions. More work is extracted when the particles are interacting via square well interaction. Another important result for the second case is that as we increase the particle number the work extraction becomes independent of the initial position of the partition, as opposed to the first case. Work extraction depends crucially on the initial position of the partition. More work can be extracted with larger number of particles when partition is inserted at positions near the boundary walls.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Role of partition in work extraction from multi-particle Szilard Engine

In this work we have calculated analytically the work extraction in multi-particle Szilard engine. Unlike the previous studies, here we have introduced the biasing in the measurement procedure by inserting the partition at an arbitrary distance from the boundary. We found the work extraction to be symmetric with respect to a position- which is half way between the boundary walls. The work extraction is also calculated as a function of number of particles and it shows to saturate to a certain value for large number of particles. We find that work extraction can be made larger for multi-particle engine when the partition is inserted in the middle.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Universal fluctuations in orbital diamagnetism: A surprise in theoretical physics

Over the last century Bohr van Leuween theorem attracted the notice of physicists. The theorem states about the absence of magnetization in classical systems in thermal equilibrium. In this paper, we discuss about fluctuations of magnetic moment in classical systems. In recent years this topic has been investigated intensively and it is not free from controversy. We a have considered a system consisting of a single particle moving in a plane. A magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the plane. The system is in contact with a thermal bath. We have considered three cases: (a) particle moving in a homogeneous medium, (b) particle moving in a medium with space dependent friction and (c) particle moving in a medium with space dependent temperature. For all the three cases average magnetic moment and fluctuations in magnetic moment has been calculated. Average magnetic moment saturates to a finite value in case of free particle but goes to zero when the particle is confined by a 2-D harmonic potential. Fluctuations in magnetic moment shows universal features in the presence of arbitrary friction inhomogeneity. For this case the system reaches equilibrium asymptotically. In case of space dependent temperature profile, the stationary distribution is non-Gibbsian and fluctuations deviate from universal value for the bounded system only.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Transient exchange fluctuation theorems for heat using Hamiltonian framework: Classical and Quantum

We investigate the statistics of heat exchange between a finite system coupled to reservoir(s). We have obtained analytical results for heat fluctuation theorem in the transient regime considering the Hamiltonian dynamics of the composite system consisting of the system of interest and the heat bath(s). The system of interest is driven by an external protocol. We first derive it in the context of a single heat bath. The result is in exact agreement with known result. We then generalize the treatment to two heat baths. We further extend the study to quantum systems and show that relations similar to the classical case hold in the quantum regime. For our study we invoke von Neumann two point projective measurement in quantum mechanics in the transient regime. Our result is a generalisation of Jarzynski-W$\grave{o}$jcik heat fluctuation theorem.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Operational characteristics of single particle heat engines and refrigerators with time asymmetric protocol

We have studied the single particle heat engine and refrigerator driven by time asymmetric protocol of finite duration. Our system consists of a particle in a harmonic trap with time-periodic strength that drives the particle cyclically between two baths. Each cycle consists of two isothermal steps at different temperatures and two adiabatic steps connecting them. The system works in irreversible mode of operation even in the quasistatic regime. This is indicated by finite entropy production even in the large cycle time limit. Consequently, Carnot efficiency for heat engine or Carnot Co-efficient of performance (COP) for refrigerators are not achievable. We further analysed the phase diagram of heat engines and refrigerators. They are sensitive to time-asymmetry of the protocol. Phase diagram shows several interesting features, often counterintuitive. The distribution of stochastic efficiency and COP is broad and exhibits power law tails.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

Anomalous Brownian Refrigerator

We present a detailed study of a Brownian particle driven by Carnot-type refrigerating protocol operating between two thermal baths. Both the underdamped as well as the overdamped limits are investigated. The particle is in a harmonic potential with time-periodic strength that drives the particle cyclically between the baths. Each cycle consists of two isothermal steps at different temperatures and two adiabatic steps connecting them. Besides working as a stochastic refrigerator, it is shown analytically that in the quasistatic regime the system can also act as stochastic heater, depending on the bath temperatures. Interestingly, in non-quasistatic regime, our system can even work as a stochastic heat engine for certain range of cycle time and bath temperatures. We show that the operation of this engine is not reliable. The fluctuations of stochastic efficiency/coefficient of performance (COP) dominate their mean values. Their distributions show power law tails, however the exponents are not universal. Our study reveals that microscopic machines are not the microscopic equivalent of the macroscopic machines that we come across in our daily life. We find that there is no one to one correspondence between the performance of our system under engine protocol and its reverse.

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