Power and heat fluctuation theorems for electric circuits

TL;DR

This paper extends fluctuation theorems to power and heat in electric circuits, providing insights into small circuit behavior using analogies with Brownian motion and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework for analyzing power and heat fluctuations in electric circuits based on recent nonequilibrium fluctuation theorems.

Findings

Derived fluctuation relations for power and heat in circuits

Applicable to small circuits and other configurations

Analogies with Brownian particles enhance understanding

Abstract

Using recent fluctuation theorems from nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, we extend the theory for voltage fluctuations in electric circuits to power and heat fluctuations. They could be of particular relevance for the functioning of small circuits. This is done for a parallel resistor and capacitor with a constant current source for which we use the analogy with a Brownian particle dragged through a fluid by a moving harmonic potential, where circuit-specific analogues are needed on top of the Brownian-Nyquist analogy. The results may also hold for other circuits as another example shows.