Thermodynamic control of nonequilibrium systems
Phys. Rev. E 113, 014140 – Published 27 January, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/38p6-mqcb
Abstract
We study the thermodynamic cost associated with driving systems between different nonequilibrium steady states. In particular, we combine a linear-response framework for nonequilibrium Markov systems with Lagrangian techniques to minimize the dissipation associated with driving processes. We then apply our framework to a simple toy model. Our results show several remarkable properties for the optimal protocol, such as diverging parameters and finite entropy production in the slow-driving limit.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Collections
This article appears in the following collection:
Controlling Stochastic Dynamics Across Scales
We present a Collection of papers on Controlling Stochastic Dynamics Across Scales. It seeks to highlight novel studies on controlling the dynamics of complex stochastic systems with a rich phenomenology. Guest editors of the Collection are Étienne Fodor of the University of Luxembourg and Todd Gingrich of Northwestern University.
