Theoretical Background
摘要
Classical thermodynamics is primarily concerned with heat engines operating cyclically in the quasistatic limit, or systems coming to equilibrium with external reservoirs; by contrast, molecular machines operate far from thermodynamic equilibrium. We are typically interested in their behaviour in the long-time limit, which is dominated by the steady state. Thus, modelling molecular machines within the cellular environment requires a thermodynamics of nonequilibrium steady states.