Statistics of the dissipated energy in driven single-electron transitions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the statistical properties of heat dissipation in driven single-electron transitions, revealing Gaussian behavior in the adiabatic limit and exploring fundamental non-equilibrium work theorems like Jarzynski and Bochkov-Kuzovlev equalities.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of heat distribution in single-electron systems and generalizes key non-equilibrium fluctuation relations for arbitrary driving protocols.

Findings

Heat distribution becomes Gaussian in the adiabatic limit

Heat noise vanishes alongside average dissipated energy in this limit

Jarzynski equality holds for arbitrary drive protocols

Abstract

We analyze the distribution of heat generated in driven single-electron transitions and discuss the related non-equilibrium work theorems. In the adiabatic limit, the heat distribution is shown to become Gaussian, with the heat noise that, in spite of thermal fluctuations, vanishes together with the average dissipated energy. We show that the transitions satisfy Jarzynski equality for arbitrary drive and calculate the probability of the negative heat values. We also derive a general condition on the heat distribution that generalizes the Bochkov-Kuzovlev equality and connects it to the Jarzynski equality.