Harnessing non-equilibrium forces to optimize work extraction.

ABSTRACT: While optimal control theory offers effective strategies for minimizing energetic costs in noisy microscopic systems over finite durations, a significant opportunity lies in exploiting the temporal structure of non-equilibrium forces. We demonstrate this by presenting exact analytical forms for the optimal protocol and the corresponding work for any driving force and protocol duration. We also derive a general quasistatic bound on the work, relying only on the coarse-grained, time-integrated characteristics of the applied forces. Notably, we show that the optimal protocols automatically harness information about non-equilibrium forces and an initial state measurement to extract work. These findings chart new directions for designing adaptive, energy-efficient strategies in noisy, time-depe

SUBMITTER: Olsen KS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12696107 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature