Verification of finite bath fluctuation theorem for a non-ergodic system (2002.04746v1)

Abstract: The analysis of fluctuations generated by a thermal reservoir has produced many results throughout the history of science, ranging from the verification of the atomic hypothesis, running through critical phenomena to the most recent advances in the description of non-equilibrium thermodynamic processes. Motivated by recent theoretical and experimental works, we analyze the non-equilibrium and equilibrium fluctuations caused by a finite and chaotic heat bath in a simple system of interest. Finite bath and system of interest give rise to a non-ergodic composite system when interacting with each other. We have characterized the equilibrium distribution induced by the finite bath and numerically verified the finite-bath fluctuation theorem. We have also verified the convergence of our results to Crooks' fluctuation theorem as the number of degrees of freedom of the finite bath increases while the non-ergodic character remains.