Reliability of fluctuation-induced transport in a Maxwell-demon-type engine

Abstract

We study the transport properties of an overdamped Brownian particle which is simultaneously in contact with two thermal baths. The first bath is modeled by an additive thermal noise at temperature T_A. The second bath is associated with a multiplicative thermal noise at temperature T_B. The analytical expressions for the particle velocity and diffusion constant are derived for this system, and the reliability or coherence of transport is analyzed by means of their ratio in terms of a dimensionless Péclet number. We find that the transport is not very coherent, though one can get significantly higher currents.