Generalized relation between the relative entropy and dissipation for nonequilibrium systems

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the relationship between dissipation and time-reversal asymmetry to systems driven between different thermal equilibrium states, demonstrated through an exactly solvable model involving a particle in a moving harmonic well.

Contribution

It extends previous work by considering protocols that change the system's temperature, providing a broader understanding of dissipation in nonequilibrium thermodynamics.

Findings

Derived a generalized relation between dissipation and time-reversal asymmetry for temperature-changing protocols.

Validated the theoretical result with an exactly solvable model involving a particle in a moving harmonic potential.

Showed the applicability of the generalized relation to nonequilibrium systems driven between different thermal states.

Abstract

Recently, Kawai, Parrondo, and Van den Broeck have related dissipation to time-reversal asymmetry. We generalized the result by considering a protocol where the physical system is driven away from an initial thermal equilibrium state with temperature $\beta_0$ to a final thermal equilibrium state at a different temperature. We illustrate the result using a model with an exact solution, i.e., a particle in a moving one-dimensional harmonic well.