Thermal gas rectification using a sawtooth channel

Abstract: We study the rectification of a two-dimensional thermal gas in a channel of asymmetric dissipative walls. For an ensemble of smooth Lennard-Jones particles, our numerical simulations reveal a non-monotonic dependence of the flux on the thermostat temperature, channel asymmetry, and particle density, with three distinct regimes. Theoretical arguments are developed to shed light on the functional dependence of the flux on the model parameters.