Constructive role of temperature in ratchets driven by trichotomous noise

Abstract

The dynamics of an overdamped Brownian particle in a piecewise linear spatially periodic potential subjected to both thermal and colored symmetric three-level Markovian (trichotomous) noises is investigated. In the case of large flatness, the exact formula for the stationary current is presented. The dependence of the current on the system parameters is analyzed and the conditions for the occurrence of current reversals are found. It is shown that the direction and value of the current can be controlled by a thermal noise. Asymptotic formulas for the current for various limits of the noise parameters are calculated and compared with the results of other authors. For small noise amplitudes, it is demonstrated that the temperature at which the current is maximized is proportional to the height of the potential barrier, being a slowly varying function of the other system parameters.