2015/05/30 by Bappa Saha, Sutapa Mukherji
Chemistry · Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Brownian motion #Classical mechanics #Distribution function #Entropy (arrow of time) #Fluctuation theorem #Formalism (music) #Gaussian #Mathematics #Non-equilibrium thermodynamics #Physics #Probability density function #Probability distribution #Quantum mechanics #Statistical physics #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Work (physics) #cond-mat.stat-mech #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epjb/e2015-60179-1
published as Eur. Phys. J. B 88 (2015) 146 · 11 pages, 2 EPS figures
openalex publication_date 2015/05/30 · arxiv created 2015/06/02 · arxiv updated 2016/01/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We derive the distribution function of work performed by a harmonic force acting on a uniformly dragged Brownian particle subjected to a rotational torque. Following the Onsager and Machlup's functional integral approach, we obtain the transition probability of finding the Brownian particle at a particular position at time t given that it started the journey from a specific location at an earlier time. The difference between the forward and the time-reversed form of the generalized Onsager-Machlup's Lagrangian is identified as the rate of medium entropy production which further helps us develop the stochastic thermodynamics formalism for our model. The probability distribution for the work done by the harmonic trap is evaluated for an equilibrium initial condition. Although this distribution has a Gaussian form, it is found that the distribution does not satisfy the conventional work fluctuation theorem.