Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Fabrication and Testing of Microfluidic Optomechanical Oscillators
Published on: May 29, 2014
The energy cost and optimal design for synchronization of coupled molecular oscillators
Dongliang Zhang1, Yuansheng Cao2, Qi Ouyang1,3
1The State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
A model of coupled molecular biochemical oscillators is proposed to study nonequilibrium thermodynamics of synchronization. We find that synchronization of nonequilibrium oscillators costs addition energy to drive the exchange reaction (chemical interaction) between individual oscillators. By solving the steady state of the many-body system analytically, we show that the system goes through a nonequilibrium phase transition driven by energy dissipation, and the critical energy dissipation depends on both the frequency and strength of the exchange reaction. Moreover, our study reveals the optimal design for achieving maximum synchronization with a fixed energy budget. We apply our general theory to the Kai system in Cyanobacteria circadian clock and predict a relationship between the KaiC ATPase activity and synchronization of the KaiC hexamers. The theoretical framework can be extended to study thermodynamics of collective behaviors in other extended nonequilibrium active systems.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Forced Oscillations
Design Example: Underdamped Parallel RLC Circuit
Starting with a fixed...
Oscillations In An LC Circuit
Oscillations about an Equilibrium Position
Effective Value of a Periodic Waveform
The effective value of a periodic current represents the direct current (DC) that conveys the same average power to a resistor as the periodic current itself. This concept is crucial when assessing AC circuits. To determine the...
¹H NMR: Interpreting Distorted and Overlapping Signals
As Δν decreases and the signals move closer, the doublets appear increasingly distorted. The intensities of the inner lines increase at the cost of those of the outer lines as the signals are...

