Colloquium: Dr. Andre Barato, University of Houston
to the novel thermodynamic uncertainty relation
ABSTRACT:
Stochastic
Thermodynamics is a theoretical framework that
generalizes standard thermodynamics to systems that can be small and far from
equilibrium. Examples of such systems are biological molecules like molecular
motors, artificial molecular pumps, colloidal particles, and small electronic
systems. In this theory, thermodynamic quantities (e.g. heat and work) are
defined at the level of single stochastic trajectories. The main result of the
field is the fluctuation theorem, which is a symmetry on the probability
distribution of a fluctuating entropy that implies the second law. We introduce
the basic concepts of stochastic thermodynamics and discuss some of our results
on the relation between thermodynamic cost and precision, which include
the thermodynamic uncertainty relation. This universal relation
establishes a minimal energetic cost
associated with the precision of an observable such as the output of chemical
reaction (or any other generic thermodynamic flux). In simple words, an
uncertainty of 1% has a minimal universal cost of 20.000 k_BT.