Thermodynamic uncertainty relation for biomolecular processes

Andre C. Barato; Udo Seifert

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.114.158101

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arXiv · 1502.05944

Thermodynamic uncertainty relation for biomolecular processes

Andre C. Barato·Udo Seifert

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Abstract

Biomolecular systems like molecular motors or pumps, transcription and translation machinery, and other enzymatic reactions can be described as Markov processes on a suitable network. We show quite generally that in a steady state the dispersion of observables like the number of consumed/produced molecules or the number of steps of a motor is constrained by the thermodynamic cost of generating it. An uncertainty $ε$ requires at least a cost of $2k_BT/ε^2$ independent of the time required to generate the output.

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Andre C. Barato, Udo Seifert. 2015-04-30. Thermodynamic uncertainty relation for biomolecular processes. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.114.158101

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