Validity of TUR-based inference for growing membranes

Ascertain whether an approach based on thermodynamic uncertainty relations—inferring thermodynamic driving forces and dynamical laws from observed fluxes and their fluctuations—extends to growing membranes and other similarly complex nonequilibrium systems by identifying observables that saturate entropy-production bounds and yield reliable growth–shape laws.

Background

The authors leverage stochastic thermodynamics and thermodynamic uncertainty relations (TURs) to infer low-dimensional growth laws linking observed fluxes (e.g., particle and volume influx) to driving forces (excess chemical potential and osmotic pressure). Their previous work justified this workflow in simplified contexts, where identifying observables that saturate entropy bounds enables inference of forces and dynamics.

Whether this TUR-based inference strategy applies to complex systems like growing membranes—where multiple coupled processes, renormalized mechanics, and far-from-equilibrium effects occur—had not been established, motivating the explicit question posed by the authors.