Asymmetric motion in a double-well under the action of zero-mean Gaussian white noise and p.pdf

a r X i v : c o n d - m a t / 9 7 0 5 0 0 9 v 1 [ c o n d - m a t .s t a t - m e c h ] 1 M a y 1 9 9 7 Asymmetric motion in a double-well under the action of zero-mean Gaussian white noise and periodic forcing Mangal C. Mahato and A.M. Jayannavar Institute of Physics, Sachivalaya Marg, Bhubaneswar-751005, India Abstract Residence times of a particle in both the wells of a double-well system, under the action of zero-mean Gaussian white noise and zero-averaged but tempo- rally asymmetric periodic forcings, are recorded in a numerical simulation. The difference between the relative mean residence times in the two wells shows monotonic variation as a function of asymmetry in the periodic forc- ing and for a given asymmetry the difference becomes largest at an optimum value of the noise strength. Moreover, the passages from one well to the other become less synchronous at small noise strength as the asymmetry parameter (defined below) differs from zero, but at relatively larger noise strengths the passages become more synchronous with asymmetry in the field sweep. We propose that asymmetric periodic forcing (with zero mean) could provide a simple but sensible physical model for unidirectional motion in a symmetric periodic system aided by a symmetric Gaussian white noise. PACS numbers: 82.20.Mj, 05.40.+j, 75.60.Ej Typeset using REVTEX 1 Several physical models have recently been proposed [1–7,9] to understand possible av- erage asymmetric motion of a Brownian particle in a periodic potential. Living systems are manifestly nonequilibrium and quite understandably such an asymmetric motion has been observed recently in biological systems [8]. Though the quest for extracting useful work out of nonequilibrium systems is not new, the biological experimental observation has given enough motivation recently to renew effort in that direction. It has resulted in better understanding of the problem and also it has helped in inventing new devices for practical use [9]. In t