Stochastic thermodynamics of hidden pumps

We show that a reversible pumping mechanism operating between two states of a kinetic network can give rise to Poisson transitions between these two states. An external observer, for whom the pumping mechanism is not accessible, will observe a Markov chain satisfying local detailed balance with an emerging effective force induced by the hidden pump. Due to the reversibility of the pump, the actual entropy production turns out to be lower than the coarse-grained entropy production estimated from the flows and affinities of the resulting Markov chain. Moreover, in presence of a large time scale separation between the fast-pumping dynamics and the slow-network dynamics, a finite current with zero dissipation may be produced. We make use of these general results to build a synthetase-like kinetic scheme able to reversibly produce high free-energy molecules at a finite rate and a rotatory motor achieving 100% efficiency at finite speed. © 2015 American Physical Society.