Some Studies on Statistical Mechanics and Information Theory

In this proposed research project we would like to study the interplay between statistical thermodynamics and information theory. In particular, we hope to (1) study the fluctuation theorems and its validity for various systems, (2) build up the exact connection between the probabilistic, information-wise description and the energy description, and (3) use our Rubik’s cube model as a platform to explore various problems in statistical mechanics, such as protein binding, non-Markovian kinetics, as well as examination of fluctuation theorem in a coarse-grained system.