Title: Near-optimal protocols in complex nonequilibrium transformations

Abstract

The development of sophisticated experimental means to control nanoscale systems has motivated efforts to design driving protocols that minimize the energy dissipated to the environment. Computational models are a crucial tool in this practical challenge. In this paper, we describe a general method for sampling an ensemble of finite-time, nonequilibrium protocols biased toward a low average dissipation. In addition, we show that this scheme can be carried out very efficiently in several limiting cases. As an application, we sample the ensemble of low-dissipation protocols that invert the magnetization of a 2D Ising model and explore how the diversity of the protocols varies in response to constraints on the average dissipation. In this example, we find that there is a large set of protocols with average dissipation close to the optimal value, which we argue is a general phenomenon.

Authors:

Gingrich, Todd R.  ^[1];

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Rotskoff, Grant M. ^[2]; Crooks, Gavin E. ^[3]; Geissler, Phillip L. ^[4]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Physics of Living Systems Group, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139,, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,
2. Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,
3. Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute, Berkeley, CA 94720,
4. Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720

Publication Date:

Mon Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2016

Research Org.:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); US Army Research Office (ARO); National Science Foundation (NSF); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

OSTI Identifier:

1312046

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1377488

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231; W911NF-13-1-0390

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 113 Journal Issue: 37; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; nonequilibrium; irreversible thermodynamics; entropic sampling methods; Metropolis algorithm; Ising model