Alberto Imparato

WORK AND HEAT PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION OF AN OPTICALLY DRIVEN BROWNIAN PARTICLE

I will first introduce the differential equations governing the time evolution of the probability distributions of the work and heat exchanged by a driven Brownian particle with the surrounding environment. I will then show that the explicit solutions of such equations can be obtained in the simple case of a particle dragged by an harmonic potential. Finally, the theoretical results will be compared with the outcomes of manipulation experiments, where a micron-sized colloidal particle is dragged through water with a laser trap.

Ref.: A. Imparato et al., Work and heat probability distribution of an optically driven Brownian particle: Theory and experiments, cond-mat arXiv:0707.0439.