Related papers: Experimental realization of Feynman's ratchet
We introduce a simple, discrete model of Feynman's ratchet and pawl, operating between two heat reservoirs. We solve exactly for the steady-state directed motion and heat flows produced, first in the absence and then in the presence of an…
The maximum power of Feynman's ratchet as a heat engine and the corresponding efficiency ($\eta_\ast$) are investigated by optimizing both the internal parameter and the external load. When a perfect ratchet device (no heat exchange between…
Feynman's ratchet and pawl is a paradigmatic model for energy conversion using thermal fluctuations in the mesoscopic regime. Here, we optimize the power output of the ratchet as a heat engine in the high temperatures limit, and derive the…
We show that a mesoscopic system such as Feynman's ratchet may operate as a heat pump, and clarify a underlying physical picture. We consider a system of a particle moving along an asymmetric periodic structure . When put into a contact…
We show how the formalism used for thermoelectric transport may be adapted to Smoluchowski's seminal thought experiment also known as Feynman's ratchet and pawl system. Our analysis rests on the notion of useful flux, which for a…
Thermal ratchets can extract useful work from random fluctuations. This is common in the molecular scale, such as motor proteins, and has also been used to achieve directional transport in microfluidic devices. In this work, we use the…
Stochastic model of the Feynman-Smoluchowski ratchet is proposed and solved using generalization of the Fick-Jacobs theory. The theory fully captures nonlinear response of the ratchet to the difference of heat bath temperatures. The ratchet…
We estimate the performance of Feynman's ratchet at given values of the ratio of cold to hot reservoir temperatures ($\theta$) and the figure of merit (efficiency in the case of engine and coefficienct of performance in the case of…
Stochastic heat engines are devices that generate work from random thermal motion using a small number of highly fluctuating degrees of freedom. Proposals for such devices have existed for more than a century and include the Maxwell demon…
We present a model for a thermal Brownian motor based on Feynman's famous ratchet and pawl device. Its main feature is that the ratchet and the pawl are in different thermal baths and connected by an harmonic spring. We simulate its…
We study both experimentally and theoretically the statistical properties of the energy exchanged between two electrical conductors, kept at different temperature by two different heat reservoirs, and coupled by the electric thermal noise.…
A general formalism is derived describing both dynamical and energetic properties of a microscopic Feynman ratchet. Work and heat flows are given as a series expansion in the thermodynamic forces, obtaining analytical expressions for the…
The \chi-criterion is defined as the product of the energy conversion efficiency and the heat absorbed per-unit-time by the working substance [de Tom\'as et al., Phys. Rev. E, 85 (2012) 010104(R)]. The \chi-criterion for Feynman ratchet as…
The rectification of unbiased fluctuations, also known as the ratchet effect, is normally obtained under statistical non-equilibrium conditions. Here we propose a new ratchet mechanism where a thermal bath solicits the random rotation of an…
Thought experiments like Maxwell's Demon or the Feynman-Smoluchowski Ratchet can help in pursuing the microscopic origin of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Here we present a more sophisticated physical system than a ratchet, consisting of…
Collisional reservoirs are becoming a major tool for modelling open quantum systems. In their simplest implementation, an external agent switches on, for a given time, the interaction between the system and a specimen from the reservoir.…
We study a class of heat engines including Feynman's ratchet, which exhibits a directed motion of a particle in nonequilibrium steady states maintained by two heat baths. We measure heat transfer from each heat bath separately, and average…
We describe how adiabatically rocked quantum electron ratchets can act as heat pumps. In general, ratchets may be described as non-equilibrium systems in which directed particle motion is generated using spatial or temporal asymmetry. In a…
Out of thermal equilibrium, an environment imposes effective mechanical forces on microscopical nanofabricated devices, chemical or biological systems. Here we address the question of how to calculate these forces together with the response…
The concept of thermal ratchets is extended to the system governed by quantum mechanics. We study a tight-binding model with an asymmetric periodic potential contacting with a heat bath under an external oscillating field as a specific…