Quasistatic work processes: When slowness implies certainty

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.