Effects of error on fluctuations under feedback control

Sosuke Ito, Masaki Sano

Published 2011-05-27, updated 2012-02-08Version 5

We consider a one-dimensional Brownian motion under nonequilibrium feedback control. Generally, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT) is violated in driven systems under nonequilibrium conditions. We find that the degree of the FDT violation is bounded by the mutual information obtained by the feedback system when the feedback protocol includes measurement errors. We introduce two simple models to illustrate cooling processes by feedback control and demonstrate analytical results for the cooling limit in those systems. Especially in a steady state, lower bounds to the effective temperature are given by an inequality similar to the Carnot efficiency.