1996/03/11 by Guillermo A. Cecchi, Guillermo Cecchi, Marcelo O. Magnasco
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · #Gene Regulatory Network Analysis #Neural dynamics and brain function #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.76.1968
published as Physical Review Letters 78 (11) 1968-1971 (1996) · 3 separate figures
openalex publication_date 1996/03/11 · arxiv created 2001/05/04 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We discuss under what conditions Brownian transport processes can display negative resistance. We prove it cannot occur on 1D spaces like the circle or the line. We construct an entropic ratchet: an explicit two-dimensional model, and its collapse onto a branched 1D backbone, showing negative resistance and rectification as a consequence of a geometric symmetry breaking. We derive an accurate numerical method for solving our 2D model. Finally, we discuss analogies and relevance to biological ion channels, in particular, for channel inactivation and blocking.