Non-Boltzmann stationary distributions and nonequilibrium relations in active baths
Date
2016-12Source Title
Physical Review E
Print ISSN
2470-0045
Publisher
American Physical Society
Volume
94
Issue
6
Pages
062150-1 - 062150-9
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
Most natural and engineered processes, such as biomolecular reactions, protein folding, and population dynamics, occur far from equilibrium and therefore cannot be treated within the framework of classical equilibrium thermodynamics. Here we experimentally study how some fundamental thermodynamic quantities and relations are affected by the presence of the nonequilibrium fluctuations associated with an active bath. We show in particular that, as the confinement of the particle increases, the stationary probability distribution of a Brownian particle confined within a harmonic potential becomes non-Boltzmann, featuring a transition from a Gaussian distribution to a heavy-tailed distribution. Because of this, nonequilibrium relations (e.g., the Jarzynski equality and Crooks fluctuation theorem) cannot be applied. We show that these relations can be restored by using the effective potential associated with the stationary probability distribution. We corroborate our experimental findings with theoretical arguments.
Keywords
Brownian movementThermodynamics
Biomolecular reactions
Crooks fluctuation theorem
Equilibrium thermodynamics
Heavy-tailed distribution
Nonequilibrium fluctuations
Stationary distribution
Theoretical arguments
Thermodynamic quantities
Probability distributions