Arrow of Time in Active Fluctuations

Édgar Roldán (1) , Jérémie Barral (2) , Pascal Martin (2) , Juan M.R. Parrondo (3) , Frank Jülicher (4)

1 ICTP - Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics [Trieste]
2 PCC - Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Curie [Institut Curie]
3 UCM - Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid [Madrid]
4 MPI-PKS - Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems

We introduce lower bounds for the rate of entropy production of an active stochastic process by quantifying the irreversibility of stochastic traces obtained from mesoscopic degrees of freedom. Our measures of irreversibility reveal signatures of time's arrow and provide bounds for entropy production even in the case of active fluctuations that have no drift. We apply these irreversibility measures to experimental spontaneous hair-bundle oscillations from the ear of the bullfrog.

Mots clés: Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics; Fluctuation phenomena; random processes; noise; and Brownian motion; Active phenomena; Hair bundle; Hearing system; hair cell

Domaines: Mécanique statistique [cond-mat.stat-mech]; Biophysique [physics.bio-ph]; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Organes des sens

Édgar Roldán, Jérémie Barral, Pascal Martin, Juan M.R. Parrondo, Frank Jülicher. Arrow of Time in Active Fluctuations. 2020. ⟨hal-03077924⟩