Free Energy Changes During Non-Equilibrium System Transformations and Their Experimental Validation

A mathematical result exists that relates the work performed on a system, during a change of finite duration, to the consequent free energy difference. We considered the possibility of experimental validation of this theorem and performed preliminary simulations to test its feasibility. We found that quantitative validation was possible, but that it required an experimental precision far greater than that which we consider here. Computational evidence was acquired that the result also holds in non-equilibrium regimes.