title: Near-optimal protocols in complex nonequilibrium transformations.
abstract: The development of sophisticated experimental means to control nanoscale systems has motivated efforts to design driving protocols that minimize the energy dissipated to the environment. Computational models are a crucial tool in this practical challenge. We describe a general method for sampling an ensemble of finite-time, nonequilibrium protocols biased toward a low average dissipation. We show that this scheme can be carried out very efficiently in several limiting cases. As an application, we sample the ensemble of low-dissipation protocols that invert the magnetization of a 2D Ising model and explore how the diversity of the protocols varies in response to constraints on the average dissipation. In this example, we find that there is a large set of protocols with average dissipation close to the optimal value, which we argue is a general phenomenon.
authors: Physics of Living Systems Group, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; toddging@mit.edu.
authors: Todd R
authors: 0000-0003-4617-7146
authors: TR
authors: Gingrich
authors: Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720;
authors: Grant M
authors: GM
authors: Rotskoff
authors: Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720; Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute, Berkeley, CA 94720;
authors: Gavin E
authors: GE
authors: Crooks
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720; Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors: Phillip L
authors: PL
authors: Geissler
keywords: Ising model; Metropolis algorithm; entropic sampling methods; irreversible thermodynamics; nonequilibrium