Quenched Disorder Effects on Deterministic Inertia Ratchets

Abstract

The effect of quenched disorder on the underdamped motion of a periodically driven particle on a ratchet potential is studied. As a consequence of disorder, current reversal and chaotic diffusion may take place on regular trajectories. On the other hand, on some chaotic trajectories disorder induces regular motion. A localization effect similar to {\sl Golosov Phenomenon} sets in whenever a disorder threshold that depends on the mass of the particle is reached. Possible applications of the localization phenomenon are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.