Horizontal transport in the bouncing ball system with a sawtooth-shaped table

Abstract

The system that consists of a ball bouncing off a sawtooth-shaped table vibrating vertically is considered. The horizontal motion in this system is caused by the table shape, and we plotted the mean horizontal velocity as a function of the asymmetry of the table shape. The ball is transported in the direction which the gentler slopes face. To give a description to the net asymmetric transport, we derived a simplified model using assumptions of high bounce and probabilistic collision to the left or right slopes. The simplified model exhibits a horizontal transport qualitatively similar to that observed in the original model.