Conversion of heat to work: An efficient inchworm

TL;DR

This paper explores how bath fluctuations can induce directed motion in a dimer system through symmetry breaking, potentially explaining the high efficiency of molecular motors beyond traditional ratchet models.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized solution for bath-driven transport in a dimer, highlighting a new mechanism for energy conversion in molecular motors.

Findings

Bath fluctuations can induce directed motion in symmetric systems.

A generalized theoretical framework for bath-driven transport is developed.

Implications for understanding high-efficiency molecular motors are discussed.

Abstract

The paper discusses the natural emergence of directed motion in a dimer system due to a structural symmetry breaking. A generalised solution is obtained for the transport of such a system which is driven entirely by bath fluctuations. The result shows the existence of possibility of ratcheting driven by bath fluctuations. If this component of energy conversion driven by bath is taken into account the high efficiency of molecular motors as opposed to paradigmatic ratcheting models can probably be explained.