Noninvasive Measurement of Dissipation in Colloidal Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a noninvasive method to estimate heat production in colloidal systems by analyzing response and correlation functions, validated through simulations and experimental data, enabling easier thermodynamic measurements.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach using conditional averaging to determine heat dissipation without directly measuring response functions in colloidal systems.

Findings

Method accurately estimates heat production in simulations.

Successfully applied to experimental colloidal data.

Provides a practical tool for noninvasive thermodynamic analysis.

Abstract

According to Harada and Sasa [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 130602 (2005)], heat production generated in a non-equilibrium steady state can be inferred from measuring response and correlation functions. In many colloidal systems, however, it is a nontrivial task to determine response functions, whereas details about spatial steady state trajectories are easily accessible. Using a simple conditional averaging procedure, we show how this fact can be exploited to reliably evaluate average heat production. We test this method using Brownian dynamics simulations, and apply it to experimental data of an interacting driven colloidal system.