Thermodynamic uncertainty for run-and-tumble–type processes

School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London - London, E1 4NS, UK

Received: 5 March 2019
Accepted: 20 May 2019

Abstract

Thermodynamic uncertainty relations have emerged as universal bounds on current fluctuations in non-equilibrium systems. Here we derive a new bound for a particular class of run-and-tumble–type processes using the mathematical framework of renewal-reward theory which can be applied to both Markovian and non-Markovian systems. We demonstrate the results for selected single-particle models as well as a variant of the asymmetric simple exclusion process with collective tumbles. Our bound is relatively tight for a broad parameter regime and only requires knowledge of the statistics of run lengths and the mean entropy production rate of tumbles.