2004/06/04 by E. G. D. Cohen, David Mauzerall, D. Mauzerall · 3 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Algorithm #Mathematics #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics #Physics #State (computer science) #Statistical physics #Thermodynamics #Weighting #Work (physics) #cond-mat.stat-mech #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1742-5468/2004/07/p07006
17 pages
arxiv created 2004/06/04 · openalex publication_date 2004/07/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The Jarzynski equality relates the free energy difference between two equilibrium states of a system to the average of the work over all irreversible phase space trajectories for going from one state to the other. We claim that the derivation of this equality is flawed, introducing an ad hoc and unjustified weighting factor which handles improperly the heat exchange with a heat bath. Therefore the experiment of Liphardt et al cannot be viewed as a confirmation of this equality, although the numerical deviations between the two are small. However, the Jarzynski equality may well be a useful approximation, e.g. in measurements on single molecules in solution.