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Hauptverfasser: Jagla, Eduardo A., Bloch, Anthony M., Rojo, Alberto G.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.14424
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author Jagla, Eduardo A.
Bloch, Anthony M.
Rojo, Alberto G.
author_facet Jagla, Eduardo A.
Bloch, Anthony M.
Rojo, Alberto G.
contents We investigate the behavior of dynamical systems with nonholonomic constraints when coupled to a thermal bath, focusing on the paradigmatic case of the Chaplygin sleigh. A straightforward Langevin-type approach obtained by naively adding stochastic and dissipative terms to the equations of motion predicts a regime in which useful work can be extracted, violating the second law of thermodynamics. To resolve this paradox, we resort to a physically motivated implementation of the nonholonomic constraint as the limiting case of a viscous interaction. However, at finite temperature, fluctuation-dissipation relations imply that the viscous force has to be complemented with stochastic forces acting at the contact. We show that their incorporation restores compliance with the second law. Therefore, our results place fundamental limits on the physical realizability of idealized nonholonomic constraints.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_14424
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Nonholonomic constraints at finite temperature
Jagla, Eduardo A.
Bloch, Anthony M.
Rojo, Alberto G.
Statistical Mechanics
Mathematical Physics
We investigate the behavior of dynamical systems with nonholonomic constraints when coupled to a thermal bath, focusing on the paradigmatic case of the Chaplygin sleigh. A straightforward Langevin-type approach obtained by naively adding stochastic and dissipative terms to the equations of motion predicts a regime in which useful work can be extracted, violating the second law of thermodynamics. To resolve this paradox, we resort to a physically motivated implementation of the nonholonomic constraint as the limiting case of a viscous interaction. However, at finite temperature, fluctuation-dissipation relations imply that the viscous force has to be complemented with stochastic forces acting at the contact. We show that their incorporation restores compliance with the second law. Therefore, our results place fundamental limits on the physical realizability of idealized nonholonomic constraints.
title Nonholonomic constraints at finite temperature
topic Statistical Mechanics
Mathematical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.14424