Noise-induced transport of two coupled particles - art. no. 031914

We study the motion of two harmonically coupled particles in a sawtooth pot ential. The particles are subject to temporally cell-elated multiplicative noise. The stationary current is calculated in an expansion about the limit of rigid coupling. For two coupled particles a driving mechanism occurs wh ich is different from the one occurring in the case of a single particle. I n particular this mechanism does not need diffusion. Depending on the equil ibrium distance of the particles and the coupling constant, a current rever sal occurs. Possible relevance as a model for motor proteins is discussed.