Brownian motors: noisy transport far from equilibrium

Abstract

Transport phenomena in spatially periodic systems far from thermal equilibrium are considered. The main emphasize is put on directed transport in so-called Brownian motors (ratchets), i.e. a dissipative dynamics in the presence of thermal noise and some prototypical perturbation that drives the system out of equilibrium without introducing a priori an obvious bias into one or the other direction of motion. Symmetry conditions for the appearance (or not) of directed current, its inversion upon variation of certain parameters, and quantitative theoretical predictions for specific models are reviewed as well as a wide variety of experimental realizations and biological applications, especially the modeling of molecular motors. Extensions include quantum mechanical and collective effects, Hamiltonian ratchets, the influence of spatial disorder, and diffusive transport.