Efficiency at maximum power of interacting molecular machines

TL;DR

This paper studies how interactions among molecular motors, specifically kinesin, can enhance their efficiency at maximum power, with implications for biological systems and potential applications in nanotechnology.

Contribution

It demonstrates that many-body exclusion effects can increase efficiency at maximum power in interacting molecular motor systems within biologically relevant parameters.

Findings

Many-body exclusion enhances efficiency at maximum power.

Effect occurs in biologically relevant parameter range.

Both simplified and detailed kinesin models show similar results.

Abstract

We investigate the efficiency of systems of molecular motors operating at maximum power. We consider two models of kinesin motors on a microtubule: for both the simplified and the detailed model, we find that the many-body exclusion effect enhances the efficiency at maximum power of the many-motor system, with respect to the single motor case. Remarkably, we find that this effect occurs in a limited region of the system parameters, compatible with the biologically relevant range.