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Far from equilibrium percolation, stochastic and shape resonances in the physics of life
Nicola Poccia1, Alessio Ansuini, Antonio Bianconi
1Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, P. le A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy; E-Mails: nicola.poccia@roma1.infn.it.
Abstract:
Key physical concepts, relevant for the cross-fertilization between condensed matter physics and the physics of life seen as a collective phenomenon in a system out-of-equilibrium, are discussed. The onset of life can be driven by: (a) the critical fluctuations at the protonic percolation threshold in membrane transport; (b) the stochastic resonance in biological systems, a mechanism that can exploit external and self-generated noise in order to gain efficiency in signal processing; and (c) the shape resonance (or Fano resonance or Feshbach resonance) in the association and dissociation processes of bio-molecules (a quantum mechanism that could play a key role to establish a macroscopic quantum coherence in the cell).
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