Physics of Large Deviation

TL;DR

This paper discusses the importance of large deviation functions in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, emphasizing their theoretical significance and the challenges in experimentally measuring them to understand atypical events.

Contribution

It highlights the need to explore the experimental measurability of large deviation functions and presents future research directions in this area.

Findings

Large deviation functions describe atypical event statistics.

They are crucial for understanding universal laws like the fluctuation theorem.

Experimental measurement of these functions remains a significant challenge.

Abstract

A large deviation function mathematically characterizes the statistical property of atypical events. Recently, in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, large deviation functions have been used to describe universal laws such as the fluctuation theorem. Despite such significance, large deviation functions have not been easily obtained in laboratory experiments. Thus, in order to understand the physical significance of large deviation functions, it is necessary to consider their experimental measurability in greater detail. This aspect of large deviation is discussed with the presentation of a future problem.