Arbitrary Time Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relation from Fluctuation Theorem

TL;DR

This paper extends the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) to arbitrary finite times in nonequilibrium systems using the fluctuation theorem, revealing universal scaling relations and deepening the theoretical understanding of stochastic thermodynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a method to derive TUR for any finite time based on the fluctuation theorem, applicable to general nonequilibrium dynamics.

Findings

Universal TUR holds at arbitrary finite times.

Derived scaling relations between mean and variance of charge transfer.

Links fluctuation theorem with thermodynamic uncertainty relation.

Abstract

The thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) provides a universal entropic bound for the precision of the fluctuation of the charge transfer for example for a class of continuous time stochastic processes. However, its extension to general nonequilibrium dynamics is still an unsolved problem. In this Letter, we show TUR for an arbitrary finite time in terms of exchange fluctuation theorem applied to ensemble of copies of the original system by assuming a physical regularity condition for the probability distribution. As a nontrivial practical consequence, we obtain universal scaling relations among the mean and variance of the charge transfer in short time regime. In this manner, we can deepen our understanding on a link between two important rigorous relations, i.e., the fluctuation theorem and the thermodynamic uncertainty relation.