Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 14: Poster Session II

BP 14.91: Poster

Dienstag, 10. März 2026, 18:00–21:00, P2

Confirmation of Jarzynski's equality based on single molecular and macroscopic interaction force measurements — •Iago Peters, Laura Mears, Stefan Szokoll, and Markus Valtiner — TU Wien, Wien, Austria

Knowledge about the free energy landscape of biomolecular reactions is necessary to understand how life works on the smallest scale. Unfortunately, obtaining experimental values of the free energy difference between two states like an unbound and a bound state of two molecules is rather difficult. Jarzynski proposed an equality that connects the free energy difference between two states with the irreversible work that leads from one state to the other. Precisely, an average of all possible realizations of a process that moves the system from an equilibrium state to another state in equilibrium. Here, we test this hypothesis with experimental values. Using a simple model system, the different nucleobase-pair interactions are measured using three different techniques that are able to measure the interaction forces between two single molecules and up to several million interactions in a single experiment run. Using the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Optical Tweezers and the Surface Force Apparatus allows us to additionally investigate the scaling of biological single molecule interactions. Together with molecular dynamics simulations a strong foundation is laid to confirm Jarzynskis equality and investigate the scaling of single-molecule interactions.

Keywords: Jarzynski; Single molecule; nucleobase-pair; Atomic Force Microscope; Surface Force Apparatus