Universal Thermodynamic Law Governing Stochastic Pendulum Clocks
Abstract
Clocks' performance, especially their precision, is fundamentally limited by thermodynamic laws as they are physical devices. Yet, it is known that the established thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR), which imposes an upper bound on the uncertainty product of the precision of oscillations and entropy production, is violated for underdamped systems such as stochastic pendulum clocks. Here, we show that for a general class of stochastic pendulum clocks described as a weakly nonlinear oscillator the uncertainty product of the phase of a pendulum clock and entropy production takes a universal and simple form that depends solely on the degree of nonlinearity. Its validity and limitations are examined using several representative models of pendulum clocks. Our framework reveals a universal thermodynamic principle governing stochastic pendulum clocks beyond the conventional TUR and provides a foundation for designing optimal pendulum clocks that operate efficiently in stochastic environments.
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BibTeX
@misc{izumida2026universal,
title = {{Universal Thermodynamic Law Governing Stochastic Pendulum Clocks}},
author = {Yuki Izumida},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.04957},
eprint = {2609.04957},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04957},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Universal Thermodynamic Law Governing Stochastic Pendulum Clocks
AU - Yuki Izumida
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.04957
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04957
AB - Clocks' performance, especially their precision, is fundamentally limited by thermodynamic laws as they are physical devices. Yet, it is known that the established thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR), which imposes an upper bound on the uncertainty product of the precision of oscillations and entropy production, is violated for underdamped systems such as stochastic pendulum clocks. Here, we show that for a general class of stochastic pendulum clocks described as a weakly nonlinear oscillator the uncertainty product of the phase of a pendulum clock and entropy production takes a universal and simple form that depends solely on the degree of nonlinearity. Its validity and limitations are examined using several representative models of pendulum clocks. Our framework reveals a universal thermodynamic principle governing stochastic pendulum clocks beyond the conventional TUR and provides a foundation for designing optimal pendulum clocks that operate efficiently in stochastic environments.
ER -