Motion reversal of molecular motor assemblies due to weak noise

Bidirectional motion is an example of collective behavior of molecular motors. It occurs at finite noise level in a nonequilibrium system. We consider this problem as a first exit problem. We identify the noise strength by doing an expansion of a master equation and apply the Wentzell-Freidlin theory to define an effective nonequilibrium potential and provide analytical estimates of the reversal time. Our results match very well with the results of stochastic simulations.