Asymmetric transportation induced by thermal noise at the nanoscale

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model showing that nanoscale systems can exhibit asymmetric transportation driven solely by thermal noise, due to long correlation lengths of thermal fluctuations, without violating thermodynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework demonstrating asymmetric transport at the nanoscale caused by correlated thermal noise, unlike traditional white noise assumptions.

Findings

Asymmetric transport can occur without external fluctuations at the nanoscale.

Long correlation lengths of thermal noise enable directional transport.

The model aligns with thermodynamic principles despite asymmetry.

Abstract

Based on a simple model, we theoretically show that asymmetric transportation is possible in nanoscale systems experiencing thermal noise without the presence of external fluctuations. The key to this theoretical advance is that the correlation lengths of the thermal fluctuations become significantly long for nanoscale systems. This differs from macroscopic systems in which the thermal noises are usually treated as white noise. Our observation does not violate the second law of thermodynamics, since at nanoscale, extra energy is required to keep the asymmetric structure against thermal fluctuations.