Experimental Accessibility of Generalized Fluctuation-Dissipation Relations for Nonequilibrium Steady States

TL;DR

This paper experimentally investigates generalized fluctuation-dissipation relations in nonequilibrium steady states, validating theoretical variants and highlighting the importance of variable choice for accurate response prediction.

Contribution

It provides experimental validation of two theoretical variants of the generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem in nonequilibrium steady states.

Findings

Validation of two theoretical variants of the generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem

Variable choice significantly impacts response measurement accuracy

Experimental confirmation of fluctuation-dissipation relations in nonequilibrium conditions

Abstract

We study the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for a Brownian particle driven into a nonequilibrium steady state experimentally. We validate two different theoretical variants of a generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the choice of variables crucially affects the accuracy of determining the nonequilibrium response from steady state nonequilibrium fluctuations.