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In the article Phys. Rev. E 106, 054617 "Harvesting information to control non-equilibrium states of active matter", the authors study the transition from one non-equilibrium steady-state (NESS) to another NESS by changing the correlated noise that is driving a Brownian particle held in an optical trap. They find that the amount of heat that is released during the transition is directly proportional to the difference of spectral entropy between the two colored noises, in a fashion that is reminiscent of Landauer's principle. In this comment I argue that the found relation between the released heat and the spectral entropy does not hold in general, and that one can provide examples of noises where it clearly fails. I also show that, even in the case considered by the authors, the relation cannot be rigorously true and is only approximately verified experimentally., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures more...

International audience; It is well known, since the seminal work of Mysels et al., that the thinner parts of a foam film go up by gravity, whereas the thicker parts go down. Preparing a foam film in a controlled way, so that the top part of the film is much thicker than the bottom part at initial time, we show that this situation is indeed unstable under gravity. The observed instability is identified as a Rayleigh-Taylor like instability and studied in the linear regime. The wavelength and the growth rate are measured as a function of the effective gravity, and as a function of the thick film extension. We theoretically show that all wavelengths are unstable, as the surface tension stabilizing the small wavelengths in the classical bulk Rayleigh Taylor instability has no significant equivalent in a foam film. The fastest mode is analytically determined and is in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations. more...

The effect of a change of noise amplitudes in overdamped diffusive systems is linked to their unperturbed behavior by means of a nonequilibrium fluctuation-response relation. This formula holds also for systems with state-independent nontrivial diffusivity matrices, as we show with an application to an experiment of two trapped and hydrodynamically coupled colloids, one of which is subject to an external random forcing that mimics an effective temperature. The nonequilibrium susceptibility of the energy to a variation of this driving is an example of our formulation, which improves an earlier version, as it does not depend on the time-discretization of the stochastic dynamics. This scheme holds for generic systems with additive noise and can be easily implemented numerically, thanks to matrix operations. more...

International audience; Shear-thickening is observed in dense particulate suspensions and consists in a severe increase of the suspension viscosity above an onset stress. This behavior, which is very useful for certain technological applications, can also be an issue in some industrial processes. Shear thickening was considered a puzzle for a long time. It can now be explained as a frictional transition thanks to a recent theoretical model. This paper presents this model and its numerical and experimental validations. Different applications which may emerge from the understanding of this phenomenon are then discussed.; Le rhéo-épaississement est un phénomène observé dans certaines suspensions denses de particules. Il consiste en une augmentation parfois brutale de leur viscosité lorsqu'elles sont soumises à une forte contrainte. Ce comportement, très utile pour certaines applications tech-nologiques, peut aussi s'avérer problématique dans certains processus industriels. Longtemps resté une énigme, le rhéo-épaississement est désormais décrit de façon cohérente par le modèle de transition frictionnelle. Cet article présente ce modèle ainsi que les études numériques et expérimentales qui le valident. Sont ensuite abordées différentes perspectives d'applications offertes par la compréhension de ce phénomène. Résumé Shear-thickening is observed in dense particulate suspensions and consists in a severe increase of the suspension viscosity above an onset stress. This behavior, which is very useful for certain technological applications, can also be an issue in some industrial processes. Shear thickening was considered a puzzle for a long time. It can now be explained as a frictio-nal transition thanks to a recent theoretical model. This paper presents this model and its numerical and experimental validations. Different applications which may emerge from the understanding of this phenomenon are then discussed. more...

Perception d'un stimulus gravitropique transitoire chez les plantes. GDR PhyP - Biophysique et biomécanique des plantes

We experimentally study the statistical properties of the energy fluxes in two systems whose components are kept at different temperatures. The first system under consideration is an electric circuit which is composed by two resistances, kept at different temperatures and connected by a capacitance (conservative coupling) which couples the thermal noise of the two resistances. The other system is composed by two Brownian particles, trapped with optical tweezers, interacting through a dissipative hydrodynamic coupling. The particles are subjected to an effective temperature difference obtained by random forcing the position of one trap. In these two systems we measure the properties of the energy flowing between the two reservoirs. The role on these properties of the coupling and of the method used to produce the highest temperature is analyzed. more...

International audience; We experimentally study the statistical properties of the energy fluxes between two trapped Brownian particles, interacting through dissipative hydrodynamic coupling, and submitted to an effective temperature difference ΔT, obtained by random forcing the position of one trap. We identify effective heat fluxes between the two particles and show that they satisfy an exchange fluctuation theorem in the stationary state. We also show that after the sudden application of a temperature gradient ΔT, the total hot-cold flux satisfies a transient exchange fluctuation theorem for any integration time, whereas the total cold-hot flux only does it asymptotically for long times. more...

We experimentally study the fluctuations of Brownian micro-particles trapped with optical tweezers arranged in various spatial configurations. We give a general description of the set-up and detail four different experiments we conducted. We first use a single particle in a double-well potential to model a two-state memory system. We verify the Landauer principle on the minimal energetic cost to erase one bit of information, and we use a detailed version of a fluctuation theorem to retrieve the expected energetic bound. We then use two particles in two different traps to study the hydrodynamic interactions between two systems kept at different effective temperatures. Contrary to what was previously observed, we show that the sol-gel transition of gelatine does not provide any anomalous fluctuations for the trapped particle when the sample is quenched below gelification temperature. However, we show that an effective temperature is created when a well chosen random noise is added on one trap position. We demonstrate that the random forcing on one particle induces an instantaneous correlation between the two particles motions, and an energy exchange from the virtually hot particle to the cold one, which is in equilibrium with the thermal bath. We show a good agreement between the experimental data and the predictions from an hydrodynamic coupling model. Finally, we describe the use of micro-fluidic channels to create a shear flow at the micron size, and we discuss the possibility to interpret the force due to the shear-flow in terms of an effective temperature by testing a fluctuation-dissipation relation.; Nous avons étudié expérimentalement les fluctuations de micro-particules browniennes piégées à l'aide de pinces optiques dans un réseau de puits de potentiels voisins. Nous donnons un descriptif général du montage expérimental, puis détaillons quatre utilisations différentes du système. Nous avons d'abord utilisé une unique particule dans un double puits de potentiel pour modéliser un système mémoire à deux niveaux, avec lequel nous avons vérifié le principe de Landauer sur le coût minimal en énergie pour l'effacement d'un bit d'information. Nous avons également appliqué une version détaillée d'un théorème de fluctuation à la procédure d'effacement de l'information pour retrouver la limite énergétique attendue. Nous avons ensuite étudié l'interaction hydrodynamique entre deux particules dont l'une est soumise à une température effective. Nous avons montré qu'il n'y a pas de fluctuations anormales lors de la transition sol-gel de la gélatine, contrairement à ce qui avait été observé précédemment, et que ce système ne pouvait donc pas être utilisé pour étudier des températures effectives. En revanche, nous avons montré que l'ajout d'un forçage aléatoire bien choisi sur la position d'un piège créait une température effective. Nous avons montré que le forçage d'une des particules résultait en une corrélation instantanée entre les mouvements des deux particules, et s'accompagnait d'un échange de chaleur de la particule virtuellement chaude à la particule froide en équilibre avec le bain thermique. Nous avons obtenu un bon accord entre les données expérimentales et les prédictions d'un modèle de couplage hydrodynamique. Enfin, nous décrivons l'utilisation de canaux micro-fluidiques pour réaliser un écoulement cisaillé à l'échelle micrométrique, et nous discutons de la possibilité d'interpréter un cisaillement en terme de température effective en testant une relation de fluctuation-dissipation. more...

In 1961, Rolf Landauer argued that the erasure of information is a dissipative process. A minimal quantity of heat, proportional to the thermal energy and called the Landauer bound, is necessarily produced when a classical bit of information is deleted. A direct consequence of this logically irreversible transformation is that the entropy of the environment increases by a finite amount. Despite its fundamental importance for information theory and computer science, the erasure principle has not been verified experimentally so far, the main obstacle being the difficulty of doing single-particle experiments in the low-dissipation regime. Here we experimentally show the existence of the Landauer bound in a generic model of a one-bit memory. Using a system of a single colloidal particle trapped in a modulated double-well potential, we establish that the mean dissipated heat saturates at the Landauer bound in the limit of long erasure cycles. This result demonstrates the intimate link between information theory and thermodynamics. It further highlights the ultimate physical limit of irreversible computation. more...

International audience; We present an experiment in which a one-bit memory is constructed , using a system of a single colloidal particle trapped in a modulated double-well potential. We measure the amount of heat dissipated to erase a bit and we establish that in the limit of long erasure cycles the mean dissipated heat saturates at the Landauer bound, i.e. the minimal quantity of heat necessarily produced to delete a classical bit of information. This result demonstrates the intimate link between information theory and thermodynamics. To stress this connection we also show that a detailed Jarzynski equality is verified, retrieving the Landauer's bound independently of the work done on the system. The experimental details are presented and the experimental errors carefully discussed more...

International audience; We study the fluctuations of a Brownian micro particle trapped with optical tweezers in a gelatin solution undergoing a fast local temperature quench below the sol-gel transition. Contrary to what was previously reported, we observe no anomalous fluctuations in the particle's position that could be interpreted in terms of an effective temperature. A careful analysis with ensemble averages shows only equilibrium-like properties for the fluctuations, even though the system is clearly aging. We also provide a detailed discussion on possible artifacts that could have been interpreted as an effective temperature, such as the presence of a drift or a mixing in time and ensemble averages in data analysis. These considerations are of general interest when dealing with non-ergodic or non-stationary systems. more...

We report a novel experimental technique that measures simultaneously in three dimensions the trajectories, the translation, and the rotation of finite size inertial particles together with the turbulent flow. The flow field is analyzed by tracking the temporal evolution of small fluorescent tracer particles. The inertial particles consist of a super-absorbent polymer that renders them index and density matched with water and thus invisible. The particles are marked by inserting at various locations tracer particles into the polymer. Translation and rotation, as well as the flow field around the particle are recovered dynamically from the analysis of the marker and tracer particle trajectories. We apply this technique to study the dynamics of inertial particles much larger in size (Rp/{\eta} \approx 100) than the Kolmogorov length scale {\eta} in a von K\'arm\'an swirling water flow (R{\lambda} \approx 400). We show, using the mixed (particle/fluid) Eulerian second order velocity structure function, that the interaction zone between the particle and the flow develops in a spherical shell of width 2Rp around the particle of radius Rp. This we interpret as an indication of a wake induced by the particle. This measurement technique has many additional advantages that will make it useful to address other problems such as particle collisions, dynamics of non-spherical solid objects, or even of wet granular matter., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, submitted to "Measurement Science and Technology" special issue on "Advances in 3D velocimetry" more...

International audience; We measure the energy exchanged between two hydrodynamically coupled micron-sized Brownian particles trapped in water by two optical tweezers. The system is driven out of equilibrium by random forcing the position of one of the two particles. The forced particle behaves as it has an "effective temperature'' higher than that of the other bead. This driving modifies the equilibrium variances and cross-correlation functions of the bead positions: we measure an energy flow between the particles and an instantaneous cross-correlation, proportional to the effective temperature difference between the two particles. A model of the interaction which is based on classical hydrodynamic coupling tensors is proposed. The theoretical and experimental results are in excellent agreement. more...

A single bit memory system is made with a brownian particle held by an optical tweezer in a double-well potential and the work necessary to erase the memory is measured. We show that the minimum of this work is close to the Landauer's bound only for very slow erasure procedure. Instead a detailed Jarzynski equality allows us to retrieve the Landauer's bound independently on the speed of this erasure procedure. For the two separated subprocesses, i.e. the transition from state 1 to state 0 and the transition from state 0 to state 0, the Jarzynski equality does not hold but the generalized version links the work done on the system to the probability that it returns to its initial state under the time-reversed procedure., Europhysics Letters (2013) 4 more...