Phase transitions in Brownian pumps

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Apr 18;112(15):150601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.150601. Epub 2014 Apr 17.

Abstract

We study stochastic particle transport between two reservoirs along a channel, where the particles are pumped against a bias by a traveling wave potential. It is shown that phase transitions of period-averaged densities or currents occur inside the channel when exclusion interactions between the particles are taken into account. These transitions reflect those known for the asymmetric simple exclusion process. We argue that their occurrence is a generic feature of Brownian motors operating in open systems.