title: Hopping motion of interacting particles: from time-dependent interaction to directed transport.
abstract: The hopping motion of three or more pairwise interacting particles on a linear equipotential chain is investigated. It is shown that a directed transport of the particle array can be obtained by introducing time-dependent interactions such as switching the interaction strength periodically between two values. The direction and mean velocity of the motion are determined by the nature of the imposed time dependence and can, hence, be chosen dynamically. The possibility of transporting a passive cargo and some other applications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Porto
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urbakh
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klafter