title: Ratchet universality in the presence of thermal noise.
abstract: We show that directed ratchet transport of a driven overdamped Brownian particle subjected to a spatially periodic and symmetric potential can be reliably controlled by tailoring a biharmonic temporal force, in coherence with the degree-of-symmetry-breaking mechanism. We demonstrate that the effect of finite temperature on the purely deterministic ratchet scenario can be understood as an effective noise-induced change of the potential barrier which is in turn controlled by the degree-of-symmetry-breaking mechanism. Remarkably, we find that the same universal scenario holds for any symmetric periodic potential, while optimal directed ratchet transport occurs when the impulse transmitted (spatial integral over a half period) by the symmetric spatial force is maximum.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física Aplicada, E.I.N.A., Universidad de Zaragoza, E-50018 Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: Pedro J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chacón
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004058:Diffusion; D004735:Energy Transfer; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013816:Thermodynamics