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Abstract

We uncover an unforeseen asymmetry in relaxation: for a pair of thermodynamically equidistant temperature quenches, one from a lower and the other from a higher temperature, the relaxation at the ambient temperature is faster in the case of the former. We demonstrate this finding on hand of two exactly solvable many-body systems relevant in the context of single-molecule and tracer-particle dynamics. We prove that near stable minima and for all quadratic energy landscapes it is a general phenomenon that also exists in a class of non-Markovian observables probed in single-molecule and particle-tracking experiments. The asymmetry is a general feature of reversible overdamped diffusive systems with smooth single-well potentials and occurs in multiwell landscapes when quenches disturb predominantly intrawell equilibria. Our findings may be relevant for the optimization of stochastic heat engines.