Reimann, PeterVan den Broek, C.Linke, H.Hänggi, PeterRubí Capaceti, José MiguelPérez Madrid, Agustín2011-07-072011-07-0720021063-651Xhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/18866An exact analytical expression for the effective diffusion coefficient of an overdamped Brownian particle in a tilted periodic potential is derived for arbitrary potentials and arbitrary strengths of the thermal noise. Near the critical tilt (threshold of deterministic running solutions) a scaling behavior for weak thermal noise is revealed and various universality classes are identified. In comparison with the bare (potential-free) thermal diffusion, the effective diffusion coefficient in a critically tilted periodic potential may be, in principle, arbitrarily enhanced. For a realistic experimental setup, an enhancement by 14 orders of magnitude is predicted so that thermal diffusion should be observable on a macroscopic scale at room temperature.16 p.application/pdfeng(c) American Physical Society, 2002Física estadísticaSistemes no linealsFísica matemàticaStatistical physicsNonlinear systemsMathematical physicsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article514163info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess