Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 31: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems I (Joint Session with DY)

BP 31.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 12:15–12:30, H43

Physical driving of chemical reactions — •Vladimir Palyulin and Ulrich Gerland — Theory of Complex Biosystems, Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, James-Franck-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany

Out-of-equilibrium physical processes can generate a chemical disequilibrium, if a suitable coupling mechanism exists. Such a physical driving of chemical reactions is relevant in contexts ranging from prebiotic evolution to atmospheric chemistry. Inspired by recent microfluidic experiments, we introduce a minimal model that couples biased diffusion as a generic form of physical non-equilibrium to reversible dimerization as the simplest nonlinear reaction. The model demonstrates explicitly that the effective coupling strength, i.e. the amplitude of the chemical response to a given amount of physical driving, depends on the boundary conditions as well as the relative speeds of the physical and chemical kinetics.