In equilibrium thermodynamics, there exists a well-established connection between dynamical fluctuations of a physical system and the dissipation of its energy into an environment. However, few similarly quantitative tools are available for the description of physical systems out of equilibrium. Here, we offer our perspective on the recent development of a new class of inequalities known as thermodynamic uncertainty relations, which have revealed that dissipation constrains current fluctuations in steady states arbitrarily far from equilibrium. We discuss the stochastic thermodynamic origin of these inequalities, and highlight recent efforts to expand their applicability, which have focused on connections between current fluctuations and the fluctuation theorems.

在平衡热力学中，物理系统的动态波动与其能量向环境的耗散之间存在公认的联系。但是，很少有类似的定量工具可用于描述不平衡的物理系统。在这里，我们对被称为热力学不确定性关系的新型不等式的最新发展提供我们的观点，这些不等式表明，耗散约束稳态下的电流波动任意远离平衡。我们讨论了这些不等式的随机热力学起源，并着重指出了最近为扩大其适用性所做的努力，这些努力集中在电流波动和波动定理之间。