%0 Journal Article
%T Energy Storage in a Hamiltonian System in Partial Contact with a Heat Bath
%A Naoko Nakagawa
%A Kunihiko Kaneko
%J Quantitative Biology
%D 2000
%I arXiv
%R 10.1143/JPSJ.69.1255
%X To understand the mechanism allowing for the long-term storage of excess energy in proteins, we study a Hamiltonian system consisting of several coupled pendula in partial contact with a heat bath. It is found that energy storage is possible when the motion of each pendulum switches between oscillatory (vibrational) and rotational (phase-slip) modes. The storage time increases almost exponentially to the square root of the injected energy. The relevance of our mechanism to protein motors is discussed.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0004010v1