Quasi-deterministic transport of Brownian particles in an oscillating periodic potential

TL;DR

This paper investigates how oscillating periodic potentials influence Brownian particle transport, revealing enhanced diffusion, synchronization effects, and low-dispersion transport regimes through analytical and theoretical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces analytical expressions for diffusion and velocity in oscillating potentials, highlighting synchronization regimes and their impact on transport properties.

Findings

Oscillating potentials enhance effective diffusion.

Synchronization regimes lead to low-dispersion transport.

Analytical formulas for velocity and diffusion in different regimes.

Abstract

We consider overdamped Brownian dynamics in a periodic potential with temporally oscillating amplitude. We analyze the transport which shows effective diffusion enhanced by the oscillations and derive approximate expressions for the diffusion coefficient. Furthermore we analyze the effect of the oscillating potential on the transport if additionally a constant force is applied. We show the existence of synchronization regimes at which the deterministic dynamics is in resonance with the potential oscillations giving rise to transport with extremely low dispersion. We distinguish slow and fast oscillatory driving and give analytical expressions for the mean velocity and effective diffusion.