Eur. Phys. J. B 54, 375-383 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2007-00012-0

Constructive influence of noise-flatness in correlation ratchets

¹ Institute of Theoretical Physics, Tartu University, 4 Tähe Street, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
² Department of Natural Sciences, Tallinn University, 25 Narva Road, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia
³ Institute of Physics, Tallinn Technical University, 5 Ehitajate Road, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia

Corresponding author: ^a tammelo@ut.ee

Received: 8 October 2006
Published online: 13 January 2007

Abstract

The influence of noise-flatness on overdamped motion of Brownian particles in a 1D periodic system with a simple sawtooth potential subjected to both unbiased thermal noise and three-level telegraph noise is considered. The exact formula for the stationary probability flux (current) is presented. The phenomenon of multiple current reversals and some topological properties of the hypersurface of zero current in the parameter space of noises are investigated and illustrated by phase diagrams. The conditions for the existence of four current reversals versus the switching rate of nonequilibrium noise are given. An alternative interpretation of the results in terms of cross-correlation between two dichotomous noises is presented.