408 research outputs found
Waiting for rare entropic fluctuations
Non-equilibrium fluctuations of various stochastic variables, such as work
and entropy production, have been widely discussed recently in the context of
large deviations, cumulants and fluctuation relations. Typically, one looks at
the distribution of these observables, at large fixed time. To characterize the
precise stochastic nature of the process, we here address the distribution in
the time domain. In particular, we focus on the first passage time distribution
(FPTD) of entropy production, in several realistic models. We find that the
fluctuation relation symmetry plays a crucial role in getting the typical
asymptotic behavior. Similarities and differences to the simple random walk
picture are discussed. For a driven particle in the ring geometry, the mean
residence time is connected to the particle current and the steady state
distribution, and it leads to a fluctuation relation-like symmetry in terms of
the FPTD.Comment: 5+7 pages, 3 figure
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