Energetics of a Forced Thermal Ratchet

Hideki Kamegawa; Tsuyoshi Hondou; Fumiko Takagi

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.5251

Energetics of a Forced Thermal Ratchet

Hideki Kamegawa, Tsuyoshi Hondou, and Fumiko Takagi

Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 5251 – Published 15 June 1998

Abstract

We formulate energetics of the forced thermal ratchet [M. O. Magnasco, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1477 (1993)] and evaluate its efficiency of energy transformation. We show that the presence of thermal fluctuation cannot increase the efficiency of the energy transformation in the original system of Magnasco, which is contrary to his claim that “There is a region of the operating regime where the efficiency is optimized at finite temperatures.” We also discuss the maximum efficiency of the forced thermal ratchet.

Received 17 February 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.5251

Authors & Affiliations

Hideki Kamegawa^*, Tsuyoshi Hondou^†, and Fumiko Takagi^‡

Department of Physics, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan

^*Present address: Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan. Electronic address: kame@cmpt01.phys.tohoku.ac.jp
^†Electronic address: hondou@cmpt01.phys.tohoku.ac.jp
^‡Electronic address: fumiko@cmpt01.phys.tohoku.ac.jp