The Thermodynamic Uncertainty Theorem

TL;DR

This paper extends thermodynamic uncertainty relations by incorporating higher statistical moments of entropy production, deriving an exact minimal variance current, and establishing the Thermodynamic Uncertainty Theorem, which tightens the bounds on current precision.

Contribution

It introduces the Thermodynamic Uncertainty Theorem, providing an exact expression for minimal variance currents considering higher moments of entropy production.

Findings

Higher moments of entropy production significantly influence current precision.

The TUT tightens previous TUR bounds by incorporating full entropy production distribution.

Numerical analysis demonstrates interpolation between established bounds in nonequilibrium regimes.

Abstract

Thermodynamic uncertainty relations (TURs) express a fundamental tradeoff between the precision (inverse scaled variance) of any thermodynamic current by functionals of the average entropy production. Relying on purely variational arguments, we significantly extend these inequalities by incorporating and analyzing the impact of higher statistical cumulants of entropy production within a general framework of time-symmetrically controlled computation. This allows us to derive an exact expression for the current that achieves the minimum scaled variance, for which the TUR bound tightens to an equality that we name Thermodynamic Uncertainty Theorem (TUT). Importantly, both the minimum scaled variance current and the TUT are functionals of the stochastic entropy production, thus retaining the impact of its higher moments. In particular, our results show that, beyond the average, the entropy production distribution's higher moments have a significant effect on any current's precision. This is made explicit via a thorough numerical analysis of swap and reset computations that quantitatively compares the TUT against previous generalized TURs. Our results demonstrate how to interpolate between previously-established bounds and how to identify the most relevant TUR bounds in different nonequilibrium regimes.