Generation of virtual potentials by controlled feedback in electric circuit systems

Electric circuits influenced by thermal noise are analogous to confined Brownian particles and can be an alternative and convenient scheme for studying stochastic thermodynamics. Here we experimentally demonstrate an effective technique of generating tunable potentials for Brownian dynamics in an electric circuit, realized by external controlled feedback. We present two illustrative examples of one-dimensional virtual potentials: static harmonic potential and time-varying double-well potential. The thermal noises of both cases undergo equivalent Brownian dynamics as if they were in the authentic potentials as long as the feedback is fast enough to respond to the designed potentials. The results show that the electric circuit provides a simple, effective, and programmable scheme to study the feedback-controlled virtual potential.