Measuring disorder in irreversible decay processes

J Chem Phys. 2014 Sep 14;141(10):104107. doi: 10.1063/1.4895514.

Abstract

Rate coefficients can fluctuate in statically and dynamically disordered kinetics. Here, we relate the rate coefficient for an irreversibly decaying population to the Fisher information. From this relationship we define kinetic versions of statistical-length squared and divergence that measure cumulative fluctuations in the rate coefficient. We show the difference between these kinetic quantities measures the amount of disorder, and is zero when the rate coefficient is temporally and spatially unique.