Heat fluctuations for harmonic oscillators

TL;DR

This paper investigates heat fluctuations in a harmonic oscillator driven out of equilibrium, deriving probability distributions and analyzing fluctuation theorems through both experiments and theory.

Contribution

It provides an analytical form of the heat fluctuation probability density and compares theoretical predictions with experimental results for driven harmonic oscillators.

Findings

Heat fluctuations obey the conventional fluctuation theorem at large times.

An explicit analytic probability density function for heat fluctuations is derived.

Experimental results confirm theoretical predictions for transient states.

Abstract

Heat fluctuations of a harmonic oscillator in contact with a thermostat and driven out of equilibrium by an external deterministic force are studied experimentally and theoretically within the context of Fluctuation Theorems. We consider the case of a periodic forcing of the oscillator, and we calculate the analytic probability density function of heat fluctuations. The limit of large time is discussed and we show that heat fluctuations satisfy the conventional fluctuation theorem, even if a different fluctuation relation exists for this quantity. Experimental results are also given for a transient state.