2025/08/15 by Bao, Ruicheng, Ohga, Naruo, Ito, Sosuke · 3 citations
#Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2508.11586
Thermodynamic irreversibility is a fundamental concept in statistical physics, yet its experimental measurement remains challenging, especially for complex systems. We introduce a novel random coarse-graining framework to identify model-free measures of irreversibility in complex many-body systems. These measures are constructed from the asymmetry of cross-correlation functions between suitably chosen observables, providing rigorous lower bounds on entropy production. For many-particle systems, we propose a particularly practical implementation that divides real space into virtual boxes and monitors particle number densities within them, requiring only simple counting from video microscopy, without single-particle tracking, trajectory reconstruction, or prior knowledge of interactions. Owing to its generality and minimal data requirements, the random coarse-graining framework offers broad applicability across diverse nonequilibrium systems.