https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2014-02334-4
Review
Working under confinement
1 Institut für Intelligente Systeme, Heisenbergstr. 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
2 IV. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
3 Departament de Fisica Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, C. Martí i Franques 1, Barcelona, Spain
a e-mail: malgaretti@is.mpg.de
Received: 17 October 2014
Revised: 5 November 2014
Published online: 15 December 2014
We analyze the performance of a Brownian ratchet in the presence of geometrical constraints. A two-state model that describes the kinetics of molecular motors is used to characterize the energetic cost when the motor proceeds under confinement, in the presence of an external force. We show that the presence of geometrical constraints has a strong effect on the performance of the motor. In particular, we show that it is possible to enhance the ratchet performance by a proper tuning of the parameters characterizing the environment. These results open the possibility of engineering entropically-optimized transport devices.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2014
