  In a thermodynamical process, the dissipation or production of entropy can
only be positive or zero according to the second law of thermodynamics. However
the laws of thermodynamics are applicable to large systems in the thermodynamic
limit. Recently a fluctuation theorem known as the Transient Fluctuation
Theorem (TFT) which generalizes the second law of thermodynamics even for small
systems has been proposed. This theorem has been tested in small systems such
as a colloidal particle in an optical trap. We report for the first time an
analogous experimental study of TFT in a spatially extended system using liquid
crystals.
