Inferring entropy production in microscopic systems
Sreekanth K. Manikandan
Stanford University
10 February 2023, 15:00, Raven and Fox
An inherent feature of small systems in contact with thermal reservoirs, be it a pollen grain in water, or an active microbe flagellum, is fluctuations. Even with advanced microscopic techniques, distinguishing active, non-equilibrium processes defined by a constant dissipation of energy (entropy production) to the environment from passive, equilibrium processes is a very challenging task and a vastly developing field of research. In this talk, I will present a simple and effective way to infer entropy production in microscopic non-equilibrium systems, from short empirical trajectories [1]. I will also demonstrate how this scheme can be used to spatiotemporally resolve the active nature of cell flickering [2]. Our result is built upon the Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relation (TUR) which relates current fluctuations in non-equilibrium states to the entropy production rate.
References
[1] Inferring entropy production from short experiments [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 120603 (2020) ]
[2] Estimate of entropy generation rate can spatiotemporally resolve the active nature of cell flickering [arXiv:2205.12849]
Bio: Sreekanth completed his PhD at the department of Physics, Stockholm University, in June 2020. His PhD supervisor was Supriya Krishnamurthy. From August 2020 – October 2022, Sreekanth was a Nordita fellow postdoc in the soft condensed matter group at Nordita. Currently, he is a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University, funded by the Wallenberg foundation.