A Multiscale Approach to Brownian Motors

The problem of Brownian motion in a periodic potential, under the influence of external forcing, which is either random or periodic in time, is studied in this paper. Multiscale techniques are used to derive general formulae for the steady state particle current and the effective diffusion tensor. These formulae are then applied to calculate the effective diffusion coefficient for a Brownian particle in a periodic potential driven simultaneously by additive Gaussian white and colored noise. Our theoretical findings are supported by numerical simulations.