Work fluctuations, transient violations of the second law and free-energy recovery methods: Perspectives in Theory and Experiments

Abstract

In this report I discuss fluctuation theorems and transient violations of the second law of thermodynamics in small systems. Special emphasis is placed on free-energy recovery methods in the framework of non-equilibrium single-molecule pulling experiments. The treatment is done from a unified theoretical-experimental perspective and emphasizes how these experiments contribute to our understanding of the thermodynamic behavior of small systems

35 pages, 16 figures (Latex). Talk given at the Poincare seminar

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