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Equation 4 · The Statistical Mechanics of Irreversibility at Molecular Scale

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0≤t≤τ0\le t\le\tau

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tt

Symbol t

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τ\tau

Symbol τ

τ is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

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Consider a mesoscopic system coupled to a heat bath at temperature T . Its state xtx_t follows noisy dynamics under a time-dependent protocol λt\lambda_t . A trajectory over 0≤\le t≤\leτ\tau is denoted Γ\Gamma = \{xtx_t\}_{0}^{τ\tau} . The corresponding reverse experiment begins from the appropriate final ensemble, applies the reversed protocol, and generates a conjugate path Γ†\Gamma^\dagger .

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