Dr. Carlos Mejia Monasterio: Fluctuations in Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics

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   Fluctuations in Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics

   Dr. Carlos Mejia Monasterio, Technical University of Madrid, Španija

Fluctuations in nonequilibrium systems are under intense theoretical and experimental investigation.  Topical "Fluctuation Relations'' (FR) describe symmetries of the statistical properties of certain observables, in a variety of models and phenomena. They have been derived in deterministic and, later, in stochastic frameworks.  After a brief introduction of the fluctuation theorems for the transient response and the steady-state, I will discuss the implications they have on the behaviour of small systems.  A particular FR is the Jarzynski Equality (JE) relating the work done on a system when it is driven from an initial equilibrium state to another final state, with the free energy difference between these two states.  In the second half of the colloquium I will discuss the limitations of the JE as an estimator of the binding free energies of single biomolecules through repeated pulling experiments.  Defining a suitable stochastic thermodynamics framework, I will discuss the problem of stochastic optimization and show how such optimization problems can be used to determine optimal nonequilibrium drivings that minimize the statistical errors of the JE.