Extreme reductions of entropy in an electronic double dot

TL;DR

This paper experimentally investigates negative fluctuations of entropy production in an electronic double dot, confirming theoretical bounds and universal behaviors in nonequilibrium steady states through extensive data collection.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental validation of theoretical bounds on entropy production minima and their universal distribution in electronic double dots under nonequilibrium conditions.

Findings

Experimental minima of entropy production are above -k_B, matching theory.

The distribution of entropy minima is universally bounded as predicted.

Derived a bound for maximum heat absorption, confirmed by experiments.

Abstract

We experimentally study negative fluctuations of stochastic entropy production in an electronic double dot operating in nonequilibrium steady-state conditions. We record millions of random electron tunneling events at different bias points, thus collecting extensive statistics. We show that for all bias voltages the experimental average values of the minima of stochastic entropy production lie above $-k_B$, where $k_B$ is the Boltzmann constant, in agreement with recent theoretical predictions for nonequilibrium steady states. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the experimental cumulative distribution of the entropy production minima is bounded, at all times and for all bias voltages, by a universal expression predicted by the theory. We also extend our theory by deriving a general bound for the average value of the maximum heat absorbed by a mesoscopic system from the environment and compare this result with experimental data. Finally, we show by numerical simulations that these results are not necessarily valid under non-stationary conditions.