Current reversals in ratchets driven by trichotomous noise.

The colored three-level Markovian noise-driven nonequilibrium dynamics of overdamped Brownian particles in a spatially periodic asymmetric potential (ratchet) is investigated. An explicit second-order linear ordinary differential equation for the stationary probability density distribution is obtained for the process. In the case of a piecewise linear potential with an additive three-level (trichotomous) noise the exact formula for the stationary current is presented. The dependence of the current reversals on the noise parameters is investigated in detail and illustrated by a phase diagram. Asymptotic formulas for the current for various limits of the noise parameters are found and compared with the results of other authors. Applications to the fluctuation-induced separation of particles are also discussed.