Self consistent microscopic theory of frictional ratchet in a nonequilibrium environment

Abstract

A system-reservoir microscopic model, where the associated reservoir is modulated by the external random force, is proposed to study the transport of an overdamped Brownian particle in a frictional ratchet system with an underlying periodic potential in presence of external Gaussian noise fluctuation. We then derived the analytical expression for the average velocity and study the dependence of the various system parameters and the nonequilibrium behavior of the heat bath on the transport properties of the Brownian particle. We observe that only bath modulation though it breaks the fluctuation-dissipation relation, will not produce any net current in absence of external modulation. © 2008 IACS.