Counterexamples to the conjectured ordering between the waiting-time bound and the thermodynamic uncertainty bound on entropy production

preprint2026arXivOpen access

Abstract

Two widely used model-free lower bounds on the steady-state entropy production rate of a continuous-time Markov jump process are the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) bound σTURσ_\text{TUR}, derived from the mean and variance of a current, and the waiting-time distribution (WTD) bound σLσ_\mathcal{L}, derived from the irreversibility of partially observed transition sequences together with their waiting times. It has been conjectured that σLσ_{\mathcal L} is always at least as tight as σTURσ_{\mathrm{TUR}} when both are constructed from the same partially observed link. Here we provide four-state counterexamples in a nonequilibrium steady state where σL<σTURσ_{\mathcal L}<σ_{\mathrm{TUR}}. This result shows that no universal ordering exists between these two inference bounds under partial observation.

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