Energetics of thermal ratchet models

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.

arXiv comment14 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures included as ps files