Mathematical bioPhysics

Open Postdoc Positions funded through a AVH fellowship within the Henritte Herz program

Your application is most wecome! New application deadline: February 19, 2023! more

We develop and apply the methods of mathematical physics and the theory of stochastic processes to study phenomena in biophysics. Our main research focus is currently the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of single molecules. In particular, we aim at a trajectory-based description of macromolecular conformation dynamics as well as of their spatial transport, binding, and reactions. In our work we employ a combination of rigorous analysis corroborated by computer simulations.

For more details on particular projects, please visit our Research page

Interested in joining us? Please visit the Open Positions page for available positions.

Press releases & research news

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Aljaz Godec chosen as Henriette Herz Scout

December 08, 2022

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has selected the research group leader to recruit outstanding international junior researchers as fellows. (in German) more

Cell Adhesion Explained Through Many-Body Physics

September 28, 2021

Kristian Blom and Aljaž Godec at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry successfully exploited the Ising model – which was originally used to describe ferromagnetism – to understand how the avidity of adhesion receptors and the strength of cellular adhesion can be regulated by mechanics. more

Warming is faster than cooling if objects are sufficiently small

September 29, 2020

Sufficiently small systems warm up faster than they cool down. Aljaz Godec and Allesio Lapolla have now mathematically proven this unforeseen asymmetry. They have shown that the counterplay of potential energy and entropy in the system, which warms up, is less of an obstacle on return to thermodynamic equilibrium. more

10 most recent papers

Link to publication list of the department

Godec, A.; Makarov, D. E.: Challenges in Inferring the Directionality of Active Molecular Processes from Single-Molecule Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Trajectories. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 14 (1), pp. 49 - 56 (2023)

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Blom, K.; Godec, A.

Global Speed Limit for Finite-Time Dynamical Phase Transition in Nonequilibrium Relaxation

submitted on Sept 28, 2022: arXiv:2209.14287 [cond-mat.stat-mech]

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DOI

Dieball, C.; Godec, A.

Direct Route to Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relations

submitted on Aug 12, 2022: arXiv:2208.06402 [cond-mat.stat-mech]

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Dieball, C.; Godec, A.: On correlations and fluctuations of time-averaged densities and currents with general time-dependence. Journal of Physics A 55 (47), 475001 (2022)

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Dieball, C.; Godec, A.: Coarse graining empirical densities and currents in continuous-space steady states. Physical Review Research 4, 033243 (2022)

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Dieball, C.; Godec, A.: Mathematical, thermodynamical, and experimental necessity for coarse graining empirical densities and currents in continuous space. Physical Review Letters 129 (14), 140601 (2022)

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Dieball, C.; Godec, A.: Feynman-Kac theory of time-integrated functionals: Itô versus functional calculus. (2022)

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Dieball, C.; Krapf, D.; Weiss, M.; Godec, A.: Scattering fingerprints of two-state dynamics. New Journal of Physics 24, 023004 (2022)

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Zunke, C.; Bewerunge, J.; Platten, F.; Egelhaaf , S. U.; Godec, A.: First-passage statistics of colloids on fractals: Theory and experimental realization. Science Advances 8 (3), eabk0627 (2022)

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Hartich, D.; Godec, A.: Emergent memory and kinetic hysteresis in strongly driven networks. Physical Review X 11 (4), 041047 (2021)

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