Fluctuation theorems and atypical trajectories (1012.1006v1)

Abstract: In this work, we have studied simple models that can be solved analytically to illustrate various fluctuation theorems. These fluctuation theorems provide symmetries individually to the distributions of physical quantities like the classical work ($W_c$), thermodynamic work ($W$), total entropy ($\Delta s_{tot}$) and dissipated heat ($Q$), when the system is driven arbitrarily out of equilibrium. All these quantities can be defined for individual trajectories. We have studied the number of trajectories which exhibit behaviour unexpected at the macroscopic level. As the time of observation increases, the fraction of such atypical trajectories decreases, as expected at macroscale. Nature of distributions for the thermodynamic work and the entropy production in nonlinear models may exhibit peak (most probable value) in the atypical regime without violating the expected average behaviour. However, dissipated heat and classical work exhibit peak in the regime of typical behaviour only.