Current in a three-dimensional periodic tube with unbiased forces.

Transport of a Brownian particle moving along the axis of a three-dimensional asymmetric periodic tube is investigated in the presence of asymmetric unbiased forces. The reduction of the coordinates may involve not only the appearance of entropic barrier but also the effective diffusion coefficient. It is found that in the presence of entropic barrier, the asymmetry of the tube shape and the asymmetry of the unbiased forces are the two ways of inducing a net current. The current is a peaked function of temperature which indicates that the thermal noise may facilitate the transport even in the presence of entropic barrier. An optimized radius exists at the bottleneck at which the current takes its maximum value. Competition between the two opposite driving factors may induce current reversal.