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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.