2009/05/26 by Alessandro Mossa, Sara de Lorenzo, Josep Maria Huguet +1
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Bandwidth (computing) #Data acquisition #Energy (signal processing) #Error analysis #Experimental data #Observational error #Systematic error #Work (physics) #cond-mat.stat-mech #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.3155084
published as J. Chem. Phys. 130, 234116 (2009) · 11 pages, 9 figures
arxiv created 2009/05/26 · openalex publication_date 2009/06/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A main goal of single-molecule experiments is to evaluate equilibrium free energy differences by applying fluctuation relations to repeated work measurements along irreversible processes. We quantify the error that is made in a free energy estimate by means of the Jarzynski equality when the accumulated work expended on the whole system (including the instrument) is erroneously replaced by the work transferred to the subsystem consisting of the sole molecular construct. We find that the error may be as large as 100%, depending on the number of experiments and on the bandwidth of the data acquisition apparatus. Our theoretical estimate is validated by numerical simulations and pulling experiments on DNA hairpins using optical tweezers.