KINETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF HEAT BATH AND THE ENERGETICS OF THERMAL RATCHET MODELS

Langevin equations have been employed to describe thermally fluctuatin g systems, such as thermal ratchet models. Their role of the heat bath in these contexts has not keen clearly understood. We introduce an ap proach to this issue and, by using it, propose a method to study the e nergetics of those models. As a example, we calculate the efficiency o f energy conversion of ''Feynman's ratchet''.