Non-Stationary Effect on the Behavior of an On-Off Ratchet

The behavior of an on-off ratchet driven by a non-stationary effect is examined numerically. We find that at the stationary/non-stationary transition, mean velocity of the on-off ratchet is independent of mean residence time, in contrast to the situation for a conventional on-off ratchet, whose mean velocity is quite sensitive to the mean residence time. We give a qualitative explanation for this behavior based on distributions of the residence time.