Work fluctuations for a confined Brownian particle: the role of initial conditions

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We study the large fluctuations of the work injected by the random force into a Brownian particle under the action of a confining harmonic potential. In particular, we compute analytically the rate function for generic uncorrelated initial conditions, showing that, depending on the initial spread, it can exhibit no, one, or two singularities associated to the onset of linear tails. A dependence on the potential strength is observed for large initial spreads (entailing two singularities), which is lost for stationary initial conditions (giving one singularity) and concentrated initial values (no singularity). We discuss the mechanism responsible for the singularities of the rate function, identifying it as a big jump in the initial values. Analytical results are corroborated by numerical simulations.
All Related Versions
Funding Information
  • Regione Puglia (Dottorati di ricerca in Puglia XXXVII ciclo)
  • Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (PRIN/2020 PFCXPE)

This publication has 43 references indexed in Scilit: