Fluctuations and irreversibility: an experimental demonstration of a second-law-like theorem using a colloidal particle held in an optical trap
Date
2004-04-06
Authors
Carberry, David
Reid, James
Wang, Genmiao
Sevick, Edith M
Searles, Debra J
Evans, Denis
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Physical Society
Abstract
The puzzle of how time-reversible microscopic equations of mechanics lead to the time-irreversible macroscopic equations of thermodynamics has been a paradox since the days of Boltzmann. Boltzmann simply sidestepped this enigma by stating “as soon as one looks at bodies of such small dimension that they contain only very few molecules, the validity of this theorem [the second law of thermodynamics and its description of irreversibility] must cease.” Today we can state that the transient fluctuation theorem (TFT) of Evans and Searles is a generalized, second-law-like theorem that bridges the microscopic and macroscopic domains and links the time-reversible and irreversible descriptions. We apply this theorem to a colloidal particle in an optical trap. For the first time, we demonstrate the TFT in an experiment and show quantitative agreement with Langevin dynamics.
Description
Keywords
Keywords: Degrees of freedom (mechanics); Entropy; Functions; Probability; Random processes; Relaxation processes; Statistical methods; Theorem proving; Thermodynamics; Trajectories; Vectors; Finite systems; Irreversibility; Optical traps; Time-reversible equations
Citation
Physical Review Letters 92.14 (2004): 140601/1-4
Collections
Source
Physical Review Letters
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
Downloads
File
Description