Chemists usually deal with molecules and their transformations (kinetic processes) under the
action of the solvent. This calls for a picture of molecules in a fluctuating environment which controls their
transformations. The course intends to supply a general framework for the description of molecular
fluctuations and their effects on activated processes, and to introduce the experimental techniques that
allow the observation of fluctuations at the molecular level.
Contents:
1. What are fluctuations and how do they emerge?
2. Stochastic description of fluctuations
3. Kinetics controlled by fluctuations: Kramers theory of activated processes
4. Jump processes among sites: Master Equation dynamics
5. Fluctuations in nonequilibrium steady states: entropy production and “Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relations”
7. Stochastic chemical kinetics
8. Enzyme kinetics from the viewpoint of individual enzyme molecules
9. Fluctuations meet function: molecular motors
10. How to probe the molecular energy landscape: “force spectroscopies” and application of work-fluctuations-theorems
11. From the molecular mechanism to the kinetic constants: overview of computational applications to molecules and biomolecules and open issues
12. ATP-Synthase: an incredibly efficient rotary molecular motor in our cells
13. From E-representation to k-representation: in silico: examples of conceptualization of catalytic cycles.
At the end of the course the participants are invited to present ant to discuss a research article on these topics
Teachers: ORIAN Laura (8 hours), FREZZATO Diego (16 hours)
Curriculum: Chemical Sciences
Duration: 24 hours
- Enseignant: Diego Frezzato
- Enseignant: Laura Orian