Abstract
Based on some experimental evidence for the existence of metastable ferroelectric phases in living substances Fröhlich proposed a simple thermodynamic description of the living state. The free energy of a cell is written as a polynomial in the total electric polarization and the macroscopic deformation. The two variables are coupled which allows for piezoelectric effects. Haken argued that the transition to the living state is a field-induced phase transition and Fröhlich included the presence of large electric fields as a prerequisite for the biological coherence. Therefore, the thermodynamic formulation requires an additional term representing interactions with an external electric field. We analyze a generalized model free energy and arrive at results which confirm earlier predictions. Above a threshold field a ferroelectric phase can be established which remains stable even after the field has been removed. In conclusion, a possible further generalization of the model to embrace time dependence and spatial inhomogeneities is sketched. It appears that a link with Prigogine's theory of dissipative structure can be traced.
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