Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Control and feedback in stochastic thermodynamics.

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Maitland, Michael (2016) Control and feedback in stochastic thermodynamics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP_Theses_Maitland_2016.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (9Mb) | Preview
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3066184~S15

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Stochastic thermodynamics provides a clear definition of entropy production and the framework of fluctuation theorems has allowed many general results to be obtained for nonequilibrium systems. Notably, relationships for work and free energy in nonequilibrium systems as well as second law-like inequalities have been obtained. A recent extension to this framework has been the addition of feedback and the generalisation of the previously obtained inequalities to incorporate information quantities related to control and feedback.

In this thesis we contribute to this framework by first providing a close analysis of the nature of `time-reversal' for feedback systems. Time reversal is a key ingredient in the formulation of the fluctuation relationships from which one obtains the nonequilibrium work functions and so we consider how to meaningfully construct a time-reverse conjugate process for a system with feedback and provide a justification for the Sagawa-Ueda fluctuation relation. We then introduce a simple model of a feedback engine and use it to analyse the fluctuation properties of the information flow between the controlled system and the feedback controller.

Finally, we focus on the possibilities for feedback and consider a model whereby feedback is enacted symmetrically between two coupled systems and find that such a system has entropy-reducing dynamics. Since the dynamics appear to violate the second law of thermodynamics, we comment on their validity and argue that mutual feedback may be unphysical.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Statistical thermodynamics, Thermodynamics -- Mathematical models, Entropy, Feedback control systems, Heat-engines
Official Date: August 2016
Dates:
DateEvent
August 2016Submitted
Institution: University of Warwick
Theses Department: Centre for Complexity Science
Thesis Type: PhD
Publication Status: Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: Grosskinsky, Stefan ; Harris, Rosemary J.
Format of File: pdf
Extent: x, 143 leaves : illustrations, charts
Language: eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us