Reply to Comment on `Ratchet universality in the presence of thermal noise'

Abstract

The Comment by Quintero et al (arXiv:1309.1065[nlin.PS])does not dispute the central result of our paper [Phys. Rev. E {87}, 062114 (2013)] which is a theory explaining the interplay between thermal noise and symmetry breaking in the ratchet transport of a Brownian particle moving on a periodic substrate subjected to a temporal biharmonic excitation $\gamma\left[ \eta\sin\left( \omega t\right) +\alpha\left( 1-\eta\right) \sin\left( 2\omega t+\varphi\right) \right] $. In the Comment, the authors claim, on the sole basis of their numerical simulations for the particular case $\alpha=2$, that "there is no such universal force waveform and that the evidence obtained by the authors otherwise is due to their particular choice of parameters." Here we demonstrate by means of theoretical arguments and additional numerical simulations that all the conclusions of our original article are preserved.