Degenerate optimal paths in thermally isolated systems.

We present an analysis of the work performed on a system of interest that is kept thermally isolated during the switching of a control parameter. We show that there exists, for a certain class of systems, a finite-time family of switching protocols for which the work is equal to the quasistatic value. These optimal paths are obtained within linear response for systems initially prepared in a canonical distribution. According to our approach, such protocols are composed of a linear part plus a function which is odd with respect to time reversal. For systems with one degree of freedom, we claim that these optimal paths may also lead to the conservation of the corresponding adiabatic invariant. This points to an interesting connection between work and the conservation of the volume enclosed by the energy shell. To illustrate our findings, we solve analytically the harmonic oscillator and present numerical results for certain anharmonic examples.