On the heat flux and entropy produced by thermal fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energy exchange and entropy production due to thermal fluctuations between two conductors at different temperatures, combining experimental measurements with theoretical analysis to understand heat flux and entropy conservation.

Contribution

It provides a novel experimental and theoretical framework for analyzing heat flux and entropy in coupled thermal systems at the nanoscale, with new insights into fluctuation-driven energy exchange.

Findings

Measured heat flux as a function of temperature difference.

Established a conservation law for fluctuating entropy.

Demonstrated the system's behavior aligns with Brownian particle models.

Abstract

We report an experimental and theoretical analysis of the energy exchanged between two conductors kept at different temperature and coupled by the electric thermal noise. Experimentally we determine, as functions of the temperature difference, the heat flux, the out-of- equilibrium variance and a conservation law for the fluctuating entropy, which we justify theoretically. The system is ruled by the same equations of two Brownian particles kept at different temperatures and coupled by an elastic force. Our results set strong constrains on the energy exchanged between coupled nano-systems kept at different temperature.}