Optimal stochastic transport in inhomogeneous thermal environments

We consider the optimization of the average entropy production in inhomogeneous temperature environments within the framework of stochastic thermodynamics. For systems modeled by Langevin equations (e.g. a colloidal particle in a heat bath) it has been recently shown that a space-dependent temperature breaks the time reversal symmetry of the fast velocity degrees of freedom resulting in an anomalous contribution to the entropy production of the overdamped dynamics. We show that optimization of entropy production is determined by an auxiliary deterministic problem formally analogous to motion on a curved manifold in a potential. The "anomalous contribution" to entropy plays the role of the potential and the inverse of the diffusion tensor is the metric. We also find that entropy production is not minimized by adiabatically slow, quasi-static protocols but there is a finite optimal duration for the transport process. As an example we discuss the case of a linearly space-dependent diffusion coefficient. Copyright (c) EPLA, 2013