Finite-time minimum-work protocols for underdamped traps driven by active forces

Kangcan Yao; Ruicheng Bao; Zhonghuai Hou

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arXiv · 2610.38653

Finite-time minimum-work protocols for underdamped traps driven by active forces

Kangcan Yao·Ruicheng Bao·Zhonghuai Hou

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Abstract

Active systems provide non-equilibrium energy that can, in principle, be harvested using control protocols, making the optimization and reliability of work extraction a fundamental problem in microscopic thermodynamics. Yet how inertia and activity jointly modify the optimal work extraction protocol, the maximum extractable work its fluctuations, and implementability of protocols remains unclear. Here, we design minimum-work protocols, which maximize work extraction whenever extraction is possible, for an underdamped active particle in a translated harmonic trap. Remarkably, both the minimum mean work and its fluctuations are independent of mass, although inertia modifies the protocol. The results are then applied to an underdamped active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particle (AOUP), designing an explicit work-extraction criterion and revealing extracted work's dependence on rotational noise and initial conditions. We further show that inertia strongly affects the difficulty of implementing the optimal protocol, producing a transition-like change between underdamped and overdamped optimal protocols. These findings uncover work extraction mechanisms at the microscale and guide the design of reliable energy-harvesting microscopic devices and robots.

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Kangcan Yao, Ruicheng Bao, Zhonghuai Hou. 2026-10-28. Finite-time minimum-work protocols for underdamped traps driven by active forces. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38653

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