Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Thermodynamics of duplication thresholds in synthetic protocell systems   Understanding the thermodynamics of the duplication process is a fundamental
step towards a comprehensive physical theory of biological systems. However,
the immense complexity of real cells obscures the fundamental tensions between
energy gradients and entropic contributions that underlie duplication. The
study of synthetic, feasible systems reproducing part of the key ingredients of
living entities but overcoming major sources of biological complexity is of
great relevance to deepen the comprehension of the fundamental thermodynamic
processes underlying life and its prevalence. In this paper an abstract -- yet
realistic -- synthetic system made of small synthetic protocell aggregates is
studied in detail. A fundamental relation between free energy and entropic
gradients is derived for a general, non-equilibrium scenario, setting the
thermodynamic conditions for the occurrence and prevalence of duplication
phenomena. This relation sets explicitly how the energy gradients invested in
creating and maintaining structural -- and eventually, functional -- elements
of the system must always compensate the entropic gradients, whose
contributions come from changes in the translational, configurational and
macrostate entropies, as well as from dissipation due to irreversible
transitions. Work/energy relations are also derived, defining lower bounds on
the energy required for the duplication event to take place. A specific example
including real ternary emulsions is provided in order to grasp the orders of
magnitude involved in the problem. It is found that the minimal work invested
over the system to trigger a duplication event is around $\sim 10^{-13}{\rm
J}$. Without aiming to describe a truly biological process of duplication, this
theoretical contribution seeks to explicitly define and identify the key actors
that participate in it.

6
The categories of this paper are: astro-ph
22
The categories of this paper are: chao-dyn
27
The categories of this paper are: comp-gas
32
The categories of this paper are: atom-ph
7
The categories of this paper are: hep-th
30
The categories of this paper are: q-alg
29
The categories of this paper are: funct-an
5
The categories of this paper are: gr-qc
2
The categories of this paper are: math
12
The categories of this paper are: nucl-th
33
The categories of this paper are: plasm-ph
23
The categories of this paper are: solv-int
17
The categories of this paper are: q-fin
16
The categories of this paper are: stat
26
The categories of this paper are: bayes-an
10
The categories of this paper are: q-bio