Transition between locked and running states for dimer motion induced by periodic external driving

We study the motion of a dimer in a one-dimensional spatially periodic washboard potential. The tilt of the latter is time-periodically modulated by an ac field. We focus interest on the detrapping of the (static) ground state solution of the dimer caused by the ac field. Moreover, we demonstrate that slow tilt modulations not only induce a trapping-detrapping transition but drive the dimer dynamics into a regime of transient long-range running states. Most strikingly, the motion proceeds then unidirectionally, so that the dimer covers huge distances regardless of the fact that the bias force in the driven system vanishes on the average. We elucidate the underlying dynamics in phase space and associate long-lasting running states with the motion in ballistic channels occurring due to stickiness to invariant tori.