Microscopic heat from the energetics of stochastic phenomena

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energetics of stochastic processes at the mesoscopic level, revealing how to reconcile microscopic heat with macroscopic thermodynamics by incorporating reversible heat linked to mesoscopic free energy.

Contribution

It introduces a method to align mesoscopic heat with macroscopic thermodynamics by accounting for reversible heat from mesoscopic free energy.

Findings

Discrepancy between microscopic and macroscopic heat is addressed.

Reversible heat addition removes the difference in energetics.

Framework improves understanding of stochastic thermodynamics.

Abstract

The energetics of the stochastic process has shown the balance of energy on the mesoscopic level. The heat and the energy defined there are, however, generally different from their macroscopic counterpart. We show that this discrepancy can be removed by adding to these quantities the reversible heat associated with the mesoscopic free energy.