Symmetry breaking of current response in disordered exclusion processes

The bias-reversal symmetry -- where reversing an external bias inverts the current without changing its magnitude -- is a hallmark of nonequilibrium transport. While this property holds in homogeneous systems such as the asymmetric simple exclusion process, how disorder and its interplay with particle interactions affect this symmetry has remained unclear. Here, we identify a general criterion in disordered exclusion processes showing that the bias-reversal symmetry holds if and only if the local left-right bond-bias ratio is spatially uniform. This criterion provides a practical diagnostic that separates heterogeneous environments into symmetry-preserving and symmetry-breaking classes. Mean-field and numerical analyses reveal that bond disorder preserves the symmetry beyond linear response, whereas site disorder breaks it through an interplay between heterogeneity and particle interactions. Our results demonstrate how environmental disorder and interparticle interactions cooperate to generate asymmetric transport, thereby providing insight that is potentially relevant to transport through biological and artificial nanochannels.