Energetics of thermal ratchet models

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to analyze the energy consumption and dissipation in thermal ratchet models, exemplified by Feynman's ratchet, to better understand motor proteins and heat engines.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to evaluate energetics in stochastic thermal ratchet models, including a detailed analysis of Feynman's ratchet.

Findings

Method to compute energy consumption and dissipation

Application to Feynman's ratchet as a heat engine

Insights into motor protein energetics

Abstract

Several stochastic models called thermal ratchet models have been recently proposed to analyze the motor proteins such as myosin and kinesin,etc. We propose a method to study the energetics of those models, and show how the rate of energy consumption and the energy dissipation are evaluated. As a demonstration we consider "Feynman's ratchet", a typical fluctuating heat engine.