Large Deviation Theory Approach to Fluctuation Theorems and Landauer's Principle through Heat Redefinition

Abstract

Large deviation theory (LDT) provides a mathematical framework to quantify the probabilities of rare events in stochastic systems. In this study, we applied LDT to model a chemical reaction system and demonstrated that the fluctuation theorem for nonequilibrium reaction systems can be derived from the symmetry of the cumulant generating function defined through the rate function. Notably, this derivation does not depend on the assumption of local detailed balance. Furthermore, we redefined heat using this rate function based on information theory and evaluated Landauer's principle, which addresses the minimum energy cost associated with information erasure. These findings show the utility of LDT as a comprehensive framework for analyzing a wide range of nonequilibrium systems.