Berlin 2015 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 34: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems II (joint BP/DY/CPP)
BP 34.11: Talk
Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 12:45–13:00, H 1028
Detailed balance violations in mesoscopic biological systems — •Christopher Battle1, Chase P. Broedersz2, Nikta Fakhri1, Fred C. MacKintosh3, and Christoph F. Schmidt1 — 1Drittes Physikalisches Institut, Georg-August Universitaet, Goettingen, Germany — 2Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA — 3Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Living systems exist far from thermal equilibrium, with active processes powering many of their functions. As such, they are expected to violate fundamental tenets of equilibrium, such as the principle of detailed balance. While some cellular processes show unmistakable non-equilibrium characteristics, e.g. persistent directed motion, others are more subtle, exhibiting non-thermal, random motion which is similar in appearance to Brownian motion, e.g. cortical stress fluctuations or active cellular stirring. It is not a priori clear whether the active, random nature of the second class of motions will translate into observable violations of detailed balance on the mesoscopic, i.e. cellular, scale. Here we report experimental evidence of detailed balance violations for such a case. Such violations can be used to "fingerprint" non-equilibrium systems, and differentiate active processes from thermal ones without perturbing the system.