Comment on "Experimental Verification of a Jarzynski-Related Information-Theoretic Equality by a Single Trapped Ion" PRL 120 010601 (2018)

TL;DR

This paper critiques a recent experimental verification of a Jarzynski-related equality, clarifying that the equality tested is not actually related to the Jarzynski equality, thus correcting a misconception in the original work.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis distinguishing the tested equality from the Jarzynski equality, clarifying the theoretical relationship.

Findings

The tested equality is not related to the Jarzynski equality.

The original experimental verification is based on a different theoretical foundation.

Clarification impacts interpretation of previous experimental results.

Abstract

The target paper presents an experimental verification of a "Jarzynski-related" equality. We show that the latter equality is in fact not related to the Jarzynski equality.