Quasistatic work processes: When slowness implies certainty

TL;DR

This paper explores conditions under which work fluctuations vanish during slow, quasistatic processes in thermodynamic systems, using adiabatic theorems and correlation analysis.

Contribution

It introduces two approaches to characterize work fluctuation behavior in quasistatic processes, linking adiabatic theorems and correlation functions.

Findings

Criteria for work fluctuation cessation in small thermally isolated systems.

Criteria for work fluctuation cessation in open systems.

Connection between slowness and certainty in work processes.

Abstract

Two approaches are outlined to characterize the fluctuation behavior of work applied to a system by a slow change of a parameter. One approach uses the adiabatic theorems of quantum and classical mechanics, the other one is based on the behavior of the correlations of the generalized coordinate that is conjugate to the changed parameter. Criteria are obtained under which the work done on small thermally isolated as well as on open systems ceases to fluctuate in a quasistatic process.