Heat fluctuations in equilibrium

TL;DR

This paper investigates heat fluctuations in equilibrium systems, focusing on the characteristic function and its sub-leading corrections, using a model of an oscillator coupled to a multi-oscillator heat reservoir.

Contribution

It provides a detailed evaluation of the characteristic function for heat fluctuations in equilibrium, extending understanding beyond large deviation theory.

Findings

Characteristic function in equilibrium vanishes, indicating bounded heat fluctuations.

Explicit model of oscillator coupled to heat reservoir evaluated.

Sub-leading corrections to large deviation behavior analyzed.

Abstract

The characteristic function for heat fluctuations in a non equilibrium system is characterised by a large deviation function whose symmetry gives rise to a fluctuation theorem. In equilibrium the large deviation function vanishes and the heat fluctuations are bounded. Here we consider the characteristic function for heat fluctuations in equilibrium, constituting a sub-leading correction to the large deviation behaviour. Modelling the system by an oscillator coupled to an explicit multi-oscillator heat reservoir we evaluate the characteristic function.