{
  "id": "2002.01265",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2020-02-04T12:53:25.000Z",
  "updated": "2020-02-04T12:53:25.000Z",
  "title": "Second law of thermodynamics at stopping times",
  "authors": [
    "Izaak Neri"
  ],
  "comment": "14 pages, 4 figures",
  "journal": "Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 040601 (2020)",
  "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.040601",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.stat-mech"
  ],
  "abstract": "Events in mesoscopic systems often take place at first-passage times, as is for instance the case for a colloidal particle that escapes a metastable state. An interesting question is how much work an external agent has done on a particle when it escapes a metastable state. We develop a thermodynamic theory for processes in mesoscopic systems that terminate at stopping times, which generalize first-passage times. This theory implies a thermodynamic bound, reminiscent of the second law of thermodynamics, for the work exerted by an external protocol on a mesoscopic system at a stopping time. As an illustration, we use this law to bound the work required to stretch a polymer to a certain length or to let a particle escape from a metastable state.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2020-02-04T12:53:25.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "stopping time",
      "second law",
      "mesoscopic system",
      "metastable state",
      "theory implies"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Phys. Rev. Lett."
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 14,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}