title: Infinite family of second-law-like inequalities.
abstract: The probability distribution function for an out of equilibrium system may sometimes be approximated by a physically motivated "trial" distribution. A particularly interesting case is when a driven system (e.g., active matter) is approximated by a thermodynamic one. We show here that every set of trial distributions yields an inequality playing the role of a generalization of the second law. The better the approximation is, the more constraining the inequality becomes: this suggests a criterion for its accuracy, as well as an optimization procedure that may be implemented numerically and even experimentally. The fluctuation relation behind this inequality, a natural and practical extension of the Hatano-Sasa theorem, does not rely on the a priori knowledge of the stationary probability distribution.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Electromagnetismo y Física de la Materia, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain. cpespigares@onsager.ugr.es
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pérez-Espigares
authors.forename: Alejandro B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Kolton
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kurchan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D015233:Models, Statistical; D013816:Thermodynamics