The Brownian gyrator: a minimal heat engine on the nano-scale

Abstract

A Brownian particle moving in the vicinity of a generic potential minimum under the influence of dissipation and thermal noise from two different heat baths is shown to act as a minimal heat engine, generating a systematic torque onto the physical object at the origin of the potential and an opposite torque onto the medium generating the dissipation.

Phys. Rev. Lett., in press