Reexamination of experimental tests of the fluctuation theorem

Abstract

The Fluctuation Theorem and the Jarzynski equality are examined in the light of recent experimental tests. For a particle dragged through a solvent, it is shown that $Q,$ the heat exchanged with the reservoir, obeys the asymptotic Fluctuation Theorem but not the Jarzynski equality, due to slowly decaying tails in its distribution. For molecular stretching experiments, substantial corrections to the Jarzynski equality can result from not measuring the force at the end of the molecule that is moved. We also present a proof of the Fluctuation Theorem for Langevin dynamics that is considerably simpler than the standard proof.