Reply to Comment on "Failure of the work-Hamiltonian connection for free-energy calculations" by Horowitz and Jarzynski

J. M. G. Vilar; J. M. Rubi

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arXiv · 0808.3271

Reply to Comment on "Failure of the work-Hamiltonian connection for free-energy calculations" by Horowitz and Jarzynski

J. M. G. Vilar·J. M. Rubi

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Abstract

We show that the Comment [arXiv:0808.1224] by Horowitz and Jarzynski obtains as a main result a general free energy change for a harmonic system that in the macroscopic limit does not recover the textbook expression for the energy change of a Hookean spring. The reason is that Horowitz and Jarzynski improperly identify work with parametric changes of the Hamiltonian instead of with the standard quantity, force times displacement.

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J. M. G. Vilar, J. M. Rubi. 2008-08-24. Reply to Comment on "Failure of the work-Hamiltonian connection for free-energy calculations" by Horowitz and Jarzynski. https://arxiv.org/abs/0808.3271

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