Work probability distribution in single molecule experiments
Soft Condensed Matter
2007-05-23 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Abstract
We derive and solve a differential equation satisfied by the probability distribution of the work done on a single biomolecule in a mechanical unzipping experiment. The unzipping is described as a thermally activated escape process in an energy landscape. The Jarzynski equality is recovered as an identity, independent of the pulling protocol. This approach allows one to evaluate easily, by numerical integration, the work distribution, once a few parameters of the energy landscape are known.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0411654,
title = {Work probability distribution in single molecule experiments},
author = {Alberto Imparato and Luca Peliti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0411654},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
To appear on EPL