Work fluctuations in a time-dependent harmonic potential: Rigorous results beyond the overdamped limit

Chulan Kwon, Jae Dong Noh, Hyunggyu Park

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate the stochastic motion of a Brownian particle in the harmonic potential with a time-dependent force constant. It may describe the motion of a colloidal particle in an optical trap where the potential well is formed by a time-dependent field. We use the path integral formalism to solve the Langevin equation and the associated Fokker-Planck (Kramers) equation. Rigorous relations are derived to generate the probability density function for the time-dependent nonequilibrium work production beyond the overdamped limit. We find that the work distribution exhibits an exponential tail with a power-law prefactor, accompanied by an interesting oscillatory feature (multiple pseudo-locking- unlocking transitions) due to the inertial effect. Some exactly solvable cases are discussed in the overdamped limit.

Original languageEnglish
Article number062102
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume88
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Dec 2013

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Work fluctuations in a time-dependent harmonic potential: Rigorous results beyond the overdamped limit'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this