Exact Path-integral Evaluation of the Heat Distribution Function of a Trapped Brownian Oscillator

Using path integrals, we derive an exact expression--valid at all times t--for the distribution P(Q,t) of the heat fluctuations Q of a brownian particle trapped in a stationary harmonic well. We find that P(Q,t) can be expressed in terms of a modified Bessel function of zeroth order that in the limit t→∞ exactly recovers the heat distribution function obtained recently by Imparato [Phys. Rev. E 76, 050101(R) (2007)] from the approximate solution to a Fokker-Planck equation. This long-time result is in very good agreement with experimental measurements carried out by the same group on the heat effects produced by single micron-sized polystyrene beads in a stationary optical trap. An earlier exact calculation of the heat distribution function of a trapped particle moving at a constant speed v was carried out by van Zon and Cohen [Phys. Rev. E 69, 056121 (2004)]; however, this calculation does not provide an expression for P(Q,t) itself, but only its Fourier transform (which cannot be analytically inverted), nor can it be used to obtain P(Q,t) for the case v=0 .