Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 46: Poster

DY 46.6: Poster

Thursday, March 30, 2006, 16:00–18:00, P1

Thermodynamics of Driven Brownian Particles — •Valentin Blickle¹, Thomas Speck², Laurent Helden¹, Udo Seifert², and Clemens Bechinger¹ — ¹2. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart, Germany — ²II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Germany

A remarkable result in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics is the Jarzynski Relation (JR). It states that when a system is driven from state A to state B the free energy difference Δ F between A and B is connected to the work W done on the system: <e^{−β W}>=e^{−Δ F}. In our experiment we study the motion of a Brownian particle in a non-harmonic potential, exposed to time dependent laser potentials. From its trajectory we can determine W and the heat exchange Q with the environment. Our well characterized system allows us to illustrate the first law of thermodynamics on a trajectorial level. In addition we study the JR and other related fluctuation theorems. In our experiments we observe a non-Gaussian distribution of W which has been predicted for non-harmonic potentials and is also supported by Focker-Planck calculations.