Interacting molecular motors: Efficiency and work fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper studies a model of interacting molecular motors, revealing how interactions enhance efficiency through energetic effects and analyzing complex current structures and fluctuation properties to understand far-from-equilibrium dynamics.

Contribution

It clarifies the energetic origin of efficiency enhancement due to interactions and explores complex current and response structures in the model.

Findings

Interaction increases efficiency due to energetic effects

Complex structures in current and response functions emerge

Work and energy fluctuations reveal far-from-equilibrium behavior

Abstract

We investigate the model of "reversible ratchet" with interacting particles, introduced by us earlier [Europhys. Lett. 84, 50009 (2008)]. We further clarify the effect of efficiency enhancement due to interaction and show that it is of energetic origin, rather than a consequence of reduced fluctuations. We also show complicated structures emerging in the interaction and density dependence of the current and response function. The fluctuation properties of the work and input energy indicate in detail the far-from-equilibrium nature of the dynamics.