Generalized free energy and excess/housekeeping decomposition in nonequilibrium systems: from large deviations to thermodynamic speed limits

[2412.08432] Generalized free energy and excess/housekeeping decomposition in nonequilibrium systems: from large deviations to thermodynamic speed limits Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Condensed Matter > Statistical Mechanics arXiv:2412.08432 (cond-mat) [Submitted on 11 Dec 2024 ( v1 ), last revised 20 Dec 2025 (this version, v2)] Title: Generalized free energy and excess/housekeeping decomposition in nonequilibrium systems: from large deviations to thermodynamic speed limits Authors: Artemy Kolchinsky , Andreas Dechant , Kohei Yoshimura , Sosuke Ito View a PDF of the paper titled Generalized free energy and excess/housekeeping decomposition in nonequilibrium systems: from large deviations to thermodynamic speed limits, by Artemy Kolchinsky and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: In genuine nonequilibrium systems that undergo continuous driving, the thermodynamic forces are nonconservative, meaning they cannot be described by any free energy potential. Nonetheless, we show that the dynamics of such systems are governed by a "generalized free energy" that is derived from a large-deviations variational principle. This variational principle also yields a decomposition of fluxes, forces, and dissipation (entropy production) into a conservative "excess" part and a nonconservative "housekeeping" part. Our decomposition is universally applicable to stochastic master equations, deterministic chemical reaction networks, and open systems. We also show that the excess entropy production obeys a thermodynamic speed limit (TSL), a fundamental thermodynamic constraint on the rate of state evolution and/or external fluxes. We demonstrate our approach on several examples, including real-world metabolic networks, where we derive fundamental dissipation bounds and uncover "futile" metabolic cycles. Our generalized free energy and decomposition are empirically accessible to thermodynamic inference in both stochastic and deterministic systems. We discuss important connections to several theoretical frameworks, including information geometry and Onsager theory, as well as previous excess/housekeeping decompositions. Subjects: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) ; Information Theory (cs.IT) Cite as: arXiv:2412.08432 [cond-mat.stat-mech] (or arXiv:2412.08432v2 [cond-mat.stat-mech] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.08432 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023025 (2026) Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1103/r48t-dghl Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Artemy Kolchinsky [ view email ] [v1] Wed, 11 Dec 2024 14:52:47 UTC (4,189 KB) [v2] Sat, 20 Dec 2025 06:06:42 UTC (5,502 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Generalized free energy and excess/housekeeping decomposition in nonequilibrium systems: from large deviations to thermodynamic speed limits, by Artemy Kolchinsky and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: cond-mat.stat-mech < prev | next > new | recent | 2024-12 Change to browse by: cond-mat cs cs.IT math math.IT References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... 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