2025.02.13. Gakuhen-B "Quantum Energy Innovation" Seminar Series (Jann van der Meer)

As part of our area’s seminar series, a seminar by Jann van der Meer will be held on Thursday, February 13, 2025, at The University of Tokyo.

Details are as follows:

Speaker: Jann van der Meer (Kyoto University)
Date: Thursday, February 13, 2025, 14:00–
Place: Room 413, Faculty of Science Building No.1, The University of Tokyo

Title: Thermodynamic inference beyond lower bounds: Coarse graining in space and time
Abstract: Stochastic thermodynamics provides the framework to analyze thermodynamic quantities along individual trajectories of small but fully observable systems. If the observable dynamics is coarse-grained, i.e., does not capture all relevant degrees of freedom, the principles of stochastic thermodynamics generally cannot be applied directly. The recent field of thermodynamic inference investigates how to apply the principles of stochastic thermodynamics to coarse-grained systems by, e.g., quantifying the dissipation that accompanies particular observable phenomena. Preeminent results (e.g. the thermodynamic uncertainty relation and speed limits) are often formulated as lower bounds on the average dissipation in terms of an observable, externally accessible quantity. However, even if the main focus is to estimate entropy production, there is no reason why attention should be limited to bounds on averaged entropy production only. In my talk, I present two novel, alternative approaches. First, I introduce the concept of a fluctuating entropy production on the coarse-grained level, which e.g. allows us to localize entropy production spatially and temporally. Second, I discuss the case of temporal coarse graining through stroboscopic measurements, in which it is possible to specify conditions that allow us to reconstruct the generator of the dynamics and therefore recover the full entropy production. Both approaches are compared to more common methods in the field.