- Milestone
Nonequilibrium Equality for Free Energy Differences
Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2690 – Published 7 April, 1997
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.2690
Abstract
An expression is derived for the equilibrium free energy difference between two configurations of a system, in terms of an ensemble of finite-time measurements of the work performed in parametrically switching from one configuration to the other. Two well-known identities emerge as limiting cases of this result.
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Letters from the Past - A PRL Retrospective
2008 marked PRL’s 50th anniversary. As part of the celebrations a collection of milestone Letters was started. The collection contains Letters that have made long-lived contributions to physics, either by announcing significant discoveries, or by initiating new areas of research.