Eur. Phys. J. B (2018) 91: 103
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2018-80624-9

Regular Article

Coupled Brownian motors^★

¹ IFIMAR (UNMdP&CONICET), Univ. Nac. de Mar del Plata, Deán Funes 3350, B7602AYL Mar del Plata, Argentina
² IFISC (UIB&CSIC), Univ. de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemosa, km 7,5, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
³ IFCA (UC&CSIC), Univ. de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain

^a e-mail: julian@ifimar-conicet.gob.ar

Received: 31 October 2017
Received in final form: 20 February 2018
Published online: 6 June 2018

Abstract

A set of coupled Brownian motors—resulting from a noise-induced phase transition generated through an entropic mechanism, and formerly studied in mean-field approximation—is numerically integrated by Heun’s method. The results add much insight to the mean-field ones, allowing interpretation of the underlying mechanisms. It turns out that the low-noise boundary of the ordered phase obtained in mean-field approximation lies near a region where the order parameter is negative. Hints of bistability and negative mobility around F = 0 are seen in two cases, and anomalous hysteresis is confirmed in one case.