Far from Equilibrium Percolation, Stochastic and Shape Resonances in the Physics of Life

Abstract

Key physical concepts, relevant for the cross-fertilization between condensed matter physics and the physics of life seen as a collective phenomenon in a system out-of-equilibrium, are discussed. The onset of life can be driven by: (a) the critical fluctuations at the protonic percolation threshold in membrane transport; (b) the stochastic resonance in biological systems, a mechanism that can exploit external and self-generated noise in order to gain efficiency in signal processing; and (c) the shape resonance (or Fano resonance or Feshbach resonance) in the association and dissociation processes of bio-molecules (a quantum mechanism that could play a key role to establish a macroscopic quantum coherence in the cell).

Keywords

• emergence of life
• percolation
• complexity
• non-equilibrium thermodynamics
• criticality
• shape resonance
• Fano resonance
• Feshbach resonance
• stochastic resonance
• quantum entanglement