Electric response of DNA hairpins to magnetic fields

We study the electric properties of single-stranded DNA molecules with hairpin-like shapes in the presence of a magnetic flux. It is shown that the current amplitude can be modulated by the applied field. The details of the electric response strongly depend on the twist angles. The current exhibits periodicity for geometries where the flux through the plaquettes of the ladder can be cancelled pairwise (commensurate twist). Further twisting the geometry and changing its length causes complex aperiodic oscillations. We also study persistent currents: They reduce to simple harmonic oscillations if the system is commensurate, otherwise deviations occur due to the existence of closed paths leading to a washboard shape.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Thermodynamic arrow of time of quantum projective measurements

We investigate a thermodynamic arrow associated with quantum projective measurements in terms of the Jensen-Shannon divergence between the probability distribution of energy change caused by the measurements and its time reversal counterpart. Two physical quantities appear to govern the asymptotic values of the time asymmetry. For an initial equilibrium ensemble prepared at a high temperature, the energy fluctuations determine the convergence of the time asymmetry approaching zero. At low temperatures, finite survival probability of the ground state limits the time asymmetry to be less than $\ln 2$. We illustrate our results for a concrete system and discuss the fixed point of the time asymmetry in the limit of infinitely repeated projections.Comment: 6 pages in two columns, 1 figure, to appear in EP

Single-Temperature Quantum Engine Without Feedback Control

A cyclically working quantum mechanical engine that operates at a single temperature is proposed. Its energy input is delivered by a quantum measurement. The functioning of the engine does not require any feedback control. We analyze work, heat, and the efficiency of the engine for the case of a working substance that is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics and that can be adiabatically compressed and dilated. The obtained general expressions are exemplified for a spin in an adiabatically changing magnetic field and a particle moving in a potential with slowly changing shape

Statistics of work and fluctuation theorems for microcanonical initial states

The work performed on a system in a microcanonical state by changes in a control parameter is characterized in terms of its statistics. The transition probabilities between eigenstates of the system Hamiltonians at the beginning and the end of the parameter change obey a detailed balance-like relation from which various forms of the microcanonical fluctuation theorem are obtained. As an example, sudden deformations of a two dimensional harmonic oscillator potential are considered and the validity of the microcanonical Jarzynski equality connecting the degrees of degeneracy of energy eigenvalues before and after the control parameter change is confirmed.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Comparison of free energy estimators and their dependence on dissipated work

The estimate of free energy changes based on Bennett's acceptance ratio method is examined in several limiting cases and compared with other estimates based on the Jarzynski equality and on the Crooks relation. While the absolute amount of dissipated work, defined as the surplus of average work over the free energy difference, limits the practical applicability of Jarzynski's and Crooks' methods, the reliability of Bennett's approach is restricted by the difference of the dissipated works in the forward and the backward process. We illustrate these points by considering a Gaussian chain and a hairpin chain which both are extended during the forward and accordingly compressed during the backward protocol. The reliability of the Crooks relation predominantly depends on the sample size; for the Jarzynski estimator the slowness of the work protocol is crucial, and the Bennett method is shown to give precise estimates irrespective of the pulling speed and sample size as long as the dissipated works are the same for the forward and the backward process as it is the case for Gaussian work distributions. With an increasing dissipated work difference the Bennett estimator also acquires a bias which increases roughly in proportion to this difference. A substantial simplification of the Bennett estimator is provided by the 1/2-formula which expresses the free energy difference by the algebraic average of the Jarzynski estimates for the forward and the backward processes. It agrees with the Bennett estimate in all cases when the Jarzynski and the Crooks estimates fail to give reliable results

Work fluctuations for Bose particles in grand canonical initial states

We consider bosons in a harmonic trap and investigate the fluctuations of the work performed by an adiabatic change of the trap curvature. Depending on the reservoir conditions such as temperature and chemical potential that provide the initial equilibrium state, the exponentiated work average (EWA) defined in the context of the Crooks relation and the Jarzynski equality may diverge if the trap becomes wider. We investigate how the probability distribution function (PDF) of the work signals this divergence. It is shown that at low temperatures the PDF is highly asymmetric with a steep fall off at one side and an exponential tail at the other side. For high temperatures it is closer to a symmetric distribution approaching a Gaussian form. These properties of the work PDF are discussed in relation to the convergence of the EWA and to the existence of the hypothetical equilibrium state to which those thermodynamic potential changes refer that enter both the Crooks relation and the Jarzynski equality.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure