Asymptotics of work distributions in a stochastically driven system

Abstract

We determine the asymptotic forms of work distributions at arbitrary times $T$, in a class of driven stochastic systems using a theory developed by Engel and Nickelsen (EN theory) (arXiv:1102.4505v1 [cond-mat.stat-mech]), which is based on the contraction principle of large deviation theory. In this paper, we extend the theory, previously applied in the context of deterministically driven systems, to a model in which the driving is stochastic. The models we study are described by overdamped Langevin equations and the work distributions in the path integral form, are characterised by having quadratic actions. We first illustrate EN theory, for a deterministically driven system - the breathing parabola model, and show that within its framework, the Crooks flucutation theorem manifests itself as a reflection symmetry property of a certain characteristic polynomial function. We then extend our analysis to a stochastically driven system, studied in ( arXiv:1212.0704v2 [cond-mat.stat-mech], arXiv:1402.5777v1 [cond-mat.stat-mech]) using a moment-generating-function method, for both equilibrium and non - equilibrium steady state initial distributions. In both cases we obtain new analytic solutions for the asymptotic forms of (dissipated) work distributions at arbitrary $T$. For dissipated work in the steady state, we compare the large $T$ asymptotic behaviour of our solution to that already obtained in ( arXiv:1402.5777v1 [cond-mat.stat-mech]). In all cases, special emphasis is placed on the computation of the pre-exponential factor and the results show excellent agreement with the numerical simulations. Our solutions are exact in the low noise limit.