Entropy production theorems and some consequences

TL;DR

This paper investigates entropy production fluctuations in solvable models, demonstrating the transient detailed fluctuation theorem, analyzing entropy during relaxation, and proposing improved bounds for work and irreversibility quantification.

Contribution

It establishes the validity of the detailed fluctuation theorem in transient states and introduces refined bounds for work based on average entropy production.

Findings

Detailed fluctuation theorem holds in transient states for initial thermal equilibrium.

Average entropy production provides better work bounds than Jarzynski equality.

Entropy production quantifies irreversibility in finite-time nonequilibrium processes.

Abstract

The total entropy production fluctuations are studied in some exactly solvable models. For these systems, the detailed fluctuation theorem holds even in the transient state, provided initially the system is prepared in thermal equilibrium. The nature of entropy production during the relaxation of a system to equilibrium is analyzed. The averaged entropy production over a finite time interval gives a better bound for the average work performed on the system than that obtained from the well known Jarzynski equality. Moreover, the average entropy production as a quantifier for information theoretic nature of irreversibility for finite time nonequilibrium processes is discussed.