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Are Two‐Station Biased Random Walkers Always Potential Molecular Motors?
Author(s) -
Bakalis Evangelos,
Zerbetto Francesco
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.201402557
Subject(s) - maxima and minima , brownian motion , potential energy , random walk , brownian motor , molecular motor , component (thermodynamics) , statistical physics , energy (signal processing) , energy profile , potential energy surface , state (computer science) , rectangular potential barrier , energy landscape , computer science , nanotechnology , physics , mathematics , molecule , classical mechanics , materials science , algorithm , thermodynamics , artificial intelligence , quantum mechanics , mathematical analysis , statistics , ratchet , chaotic
The short answer to the title question is no . Despite their tremendous complexity, many nanomachines are simply one‐dimensional systems undergoing a biased, that is, unidirectional, walk on a two‐minima potential energy curve. The initially prepared state, or station, is higher in energy than the final equilibrium state that is reached after overcoming an energy barrier. All chemical reactions comply with this scheme, which does not necessarily imply that a generic chemical reaction is a potential molecular motor. If the barrier is low, the system may walk back and the motion will have a large purely Brownian component. Alternatively, a large distance from the barrier of either of the two stations may introduce a Brownian component. Starting from a general inequality that leverages on the idea that the amount of heat dissipated along the potential energy curve is a good indication of the effectiveness of the biased walk, we provide guidelines for the selection of the features of artificial molecular motors.