Single-File Diffusion of Externally Driven Particles

TL;DR

This paper provides an exact analytical solution for the diffusion and energetics of externally driven, interacting particles in one dimension, highlighting the effects of hard-core interactions on nonequilibrium thermodynamics.

Contribution

It introduces an exact solution to the N-particle Smoluchowski equation for driven hard-core particles and analyzes their nonequilibrium energetics under periodic driving.

Findings

Hard-core interactions cause entropic repulsion affecting energetics.

Exact asymptotic expressions for energy, work, heat, and entropy production.

Comparison between interacting and non-interacting particle energetics.

Abstract

We study 1-D diffusion of $N$ hard-core interacting Brownian particles driven by the space- and time-dependent external force. We give the exact solution of the $N$-particle Smoluchowski diffusion equation. In particular, we investigate the nonequilibrium energetics of two interacting particles under the time-periodic driving. The hard-core interaction induces entropic repulsion which differentiates the energetics of the two particles. We present exact time-asymptotic results which describe the mean energy, the accepted work and heat, and the entropy production of interacting particles and we contrast these quantities against the corresponding ones for the non-interacting particles.