Australian Digital Theses Program

Thesis Details
Title	Optical Tweezers: Experimental Demonstrations of the Fluctuation Theorem
Author	Carberry, David Michael
Institution	The Australian National University
Date	2006
Abstract	In the late 19th and early 20th centuries famous scientists like Boltzmann, Loschmidt, Maxwell and Einstein tried, unsuccessfully, to find the link between the time-reversible equations of motion of individual molecules and irreversible thermodynamics. The solution to this puzzle was found in 1993, and the link is now known as the Fluctuation Theorem (FT). In the decade that followed theory and computer simulation tested the FT and, in 2002, an experiment indirectly demonstrated the FT.¶ This thesis describes original experiments that demonstrate the FT directly using Optical Tweezers. A related expression, known as the Kawasaki Identity, is also experimentally demonstrated. These experimental results provide a rigorous demonstration that irreversible dynamics can be obtained from a system with time-reversible dynamics.
Thesis	01front.pdf 137.1 Kb 02whole.pdf 7319.9 Kb 03chapter1.pdf 118.2 Kb 04chapter2.pdf 3875.3 Kb 05chapter3.pdf 924.5 Kb 06chapter4.pdf 413.2 Kb 07chapter5.pdf 1557.7 Kb 08chapter6.pdf 474.9 Kb 09chapter7.pdf 483.3 Kb 10chapter8.pdf 83.7 Kb